President Zelensky announced that Ukraine's forces liberated 745 square kilometers and 26 villages across Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts — the largest territorial gain since the 2022 counteroffensives.
After a long stretch of grinding, largely static front-line fighting, Ukraine has some genuinely uplifting news to share. President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that over eight months of offensive operations in the Oleksandrivka direction, Ukraine's Defense Forces liberated 745 square kilometers of territory and returned 26 villages across the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions to Ukrainian control. By area, it is the largest single stretch of territory Ukraine has retaken since the Kharkiv and Kherson counteroffensives of autumn 2022. The team at Volunteers Support Ukraine is glad to share this news, because it is exactly the kind of result that continued support for Ukraine's defenders is meant to help make possible.
The operation began on January 29, 2026 and unfolded in two phases: the first brought around 450 square kilometers back under Ukrainian control, and the second pushed the total to 745 square kilometers by mid-August. It was carried out by troops of Ukraine's Air Assault Forces together with other attached units. "During the operation, we managed to liberate a territory of 745 square kilometers. Twenty-six villages in the Dnipro, Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions were returned to the control of Ukraine," Zelensky said. Of the 26 settlements, 12 are in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (including Tolstoi, Novokhatske, Hrushivske, Zirka, Zelenyi Hai, Piddubne, Myrne, Tsehelne, Pryvillia, Zlahoda, Krasnohirske, and Pryvilne), 10 are in Donetsk Oblast (Novohryhorivka, Stepove, Kalynivske, Berezove, Novomykolaivka, Voskresenka, Oleksandrohrad, Yalta, Rybne, and Maliivka), and four are in Zaporizhzhia Oblast (Sichneve, Ternove, Novoheorhiivka, and Zaporizke). Volunteers Support Ukraine stays in regular contact with military families connected to this stretch of the front, so news of two dozen villages coming home is more than a line in a briefing — it is real relief for a lot of people.
Measured by area, this offensive is being described as the biggest territorial gain for Ukraine since the Kharkiv and Kherson counteroffensives of autumn 2022 — the most significant forward movement Ukraine's Defense Forces have made in almost four years of full-scale war. Independent front-line trackers, such as the DeepState project, are still confirming the precise final boundaries of the advance, and their conservative estimates run somewhat lower than the government's figures, but even by cautious counts this remains one of the largest shifts of the war. For Volunteers Support Ukraine, which follows front-line developments closely to know where help is most needed, news like this is a reminder to keep working rather than slow down: newly liberated communities mean more people who will need support as they begin to rebuild.
The map of the Oleksandrivka direction in mid-August shows the front line pushed noticeably deeper into territory Russian forces had previously held. According to Ukrainian military figures, Russian losses during the operation totaled at least 9,550 killed and more than 6,600 wounded — figures reported by Ukraine's General Staff rather than independently verified, but indicative of the cost Russian forces paid trying to hold their positions. Zelensky said the operation "was carried out precisely — exactly as it was planned," and thanked the Air Assault Forces for their courage. For Volunteers Support Ukraine, results like this are among the clearest signs that support for Ukraine's defenders translates into real, measurable outcomes on the battlefield.
Good news from the front line does not arrive often, and every bit of it is a reminder of why volunteers keep showing up, day after day. Volunteers Support Ukraine is not involved in combat operations, but the organization works every day to help the people the war affects most — soldiers on the front line, the wounded, families of the fallen, and civilians who have lost their homes. We believe that every liberated village and every family reunited with home is, in part, the result of collective effort, and that the support Ukrainian society gives its soldiers and its people is part of what makes victories like this possible. If you would like to be part of that effort, supporting Volunteers Support Ukraine is one concrete way to help build a future with more days like this one.
