Russian Forces Capture Key Cities as Putin Declares Initiative Held 'Across Entire Line'

During an inspection of an auxiliary command post of the Joint Group of Forces, President Vladimir Putin set a new strategic task for the units of the Sever grouping: to establish a broad security zone along Russia’s state border. The order underscores the Kremlin’s intent to prevent further Ukrainian strikes on Russian frontier communities and to stabilize a region that has endured months of heavy positional fighting.

Photo: function.mil.ru by Пресс-служба Западного военного округа, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Special military operation

Putin Receives Report on Capture of Key Cities

At the meeting, the president heard a detailed report from General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov, who announced that Russian troops had taken control of two significant urban centers: Krasnoarmeysk, known in Ukraine as Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk People’s Republic, and Volchansk in Kharkiv Region. Gerasimov added that the 37th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade of the 36th Army had completed the capture of Dobropolye, while operations to take Gulyai-Pole in Zaporizhzhia Region were under way and the settlement of Stepnogorsk had been encircled.

The fall of Krasnoarmeysk dealt a heavy blow to Ukrainian logistics. Its loss disrupted key supply routes and cleared a pathway for Russian advances toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Volchansk, a major defensive hub for Ukrainian forces in eastern Kharkiv Region, collapsed after weeks of pressure, prompting the removal of the commander of Ukraine’s 57th Motorized Infantry Brigade. According to military correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny, the officer in question is Ukrainian Colonel Yevgeny Solodaev.

Kremlin Says Initiative 'Fully in Russian Hands'

President Putin emphasized that Russian forces now hold the initiative “across the entire line of contact” in the zone of the special military operation. He said that the successes achieved in Krasnoarmeysk and the surrounding region would ensure the continued and systematic fulfillment of the objectives set at the start of the campaign.

“The conflict in Ukraine has become a tragedy for the Ukrainian people,” the president said, blaming what he called the “thieving junta” in Kyiv for needless losses.

Putin asserted that during the battle for Krasnoarmeysk, Ukrainian commanders showed disregard for their soldiers’ lives, sending units into repeated assaults and actively obstructing attempts by their troops to surrender. He claimed that Ukrainian losses in the fighting for Volchansk alone reached eight thousand personnel, and that over the past eighteen months Ukraine has lost forty-six percent of the manpower assigned to that sector.