Russia Intensifies Offensives Across Ukrainian Front, Military Chief Says

Russia’s armed forces are carrying out sustained offensives along almost the entire front line in Ukraine and hold the “strategic initiative,” the country’s top military officer said on Saturday.

In an address published by the Defense Ministry, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov told colleagues:
“The combined grouping of troops continues offensive operations along nearly the entire front line. At present, the strategic initiative lies fully with the Russian army.”

Moscow has stepped up airstrikes this summer on Ukrainian towns and cities far from the front and pressed major assaults across much of the east in its more than three-and-a-half-year-old war, seeking to capture additional ground.

Ukrainian officials reported that Russian attacks on Kyiv on Thursday killed at least 23 people and wounded 38 others. The strikes came less than two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, a meeting Washington had hoped would advance efforts to end the conflict.

Moscow has denied targeting civilians. Ukrainian authorities counter that recent months have seen a surge in Russian strikes on densely populated areas, killing large numbers of civilians. Thousands have died since the war began.

Gerasimov said Russia has conducted 76 targeted strikes on Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities this spring and summer, focusing on sites producing long-range missile systems and drones.

According to him, Moscow now controls 99.7% of Luhansk region, 79% of Donetsk, 74% of Zaporizhzhia, and 76% of Kherson. Since March, Russia has seized more than 3,500 square kilometers (1,351 square miles) of territory and taken control of 149 settlements, he said.

Open-source battlefield maps indicate Russian forces have also pushed into Ukraine’s southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region this month, where Gerasimov claimed seven villages are now under Russian control.

Reuters was unable to independently verify battlefield conditions.