Ukraine's 1st National Guard Corps "Azov" says Dobropillia in Donetsk Oblast remains under the control of Ukrainian defense forces, rejecting Russian claims that the city has been encircled — an assessment independently backed by the Institute for the Study of War.
Ukrainian forces are still holding the city of Dobropillia in Donetsk Oblast, despite weeks of Russian claims that it had been surrounded. On Sept. 26, the 1st National Guard Corps "Azov" formally rejected those claims, and an independent assessment by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) backs that up: there is no encirclement.
The corps said Dobropillia remains under the control of Ukraine's defense forces, and that Russian infantry groups attempting to infiltrate gaps between Ukrainian positions are "promptly identified and destroyed." According to the unit, plans to encircle the city exist "only in those plans and in the deceitful reports of Russian commanders" — that is, on paper and in propaganda channels, not on the actual battlefield.
Even before Azov's statement, ISW published its own map of the area and concluded the encirclement claim doesn't hold up: Russian units are indeed trying to infiltrate and gain a foothold near the city's southern outskirts, including around the village of Nove Shakhove, but there is no continuous encirclement line on the ground. ISW also notes that Moscow has made similarly exaggerated "encirclement" claims about other sectors of the front in recent weeks, including in Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts.
Analysts say the persistent claims about Dobropillia are meant to distract from Russian setbacks further north, near Lyman, where Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps has been running Operation "Vivaldi" since mid-September, reclaiming roughly 125 square kilometers of territory and several settlements while inflicting significant losses in personnel and equipment. For Russian propaganda, the image of an "encircled" Dobropillia is more useful than admitting losses on another part of the front.
Azov's fighters also urged civilians to rely solely on official statements from Ukraine's defense forces and to avoid spreading unverified information about the situation around Dobropillia, saying such rumors often feed enemy information operations.
For a city and a region that have lived under the constant threat of shelling and front-line movement for more than three years, every day of holding the line is, above all, a day people get to stay in their own homes rather than join an evacuation queue. NGO Volunteers Support Ukraine continues to help people affected by the war in whatever way its available resources allow — and news like this is a reminder of why that help will keep being needed for a long time yet.
