Russia announced on Saturday that its troops had seized control of a new settlement in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, an area Moscow’s military forces said they had reached in early July.
According to the Russian defence ministry, its units captured the village of Novomykolaivka, located near the border with Donetsk, a key battleground in the ongoing conflict. However, AFP stated it could not independently verify the claim.
DeepState, a Ukrainian online mapping platform run by military analysts, disputed Moscow’s announcement, reporting that Novomykolaivka remains under Kyiv’s control.
Russia continues to hold a significant numerical and equipment advantage on the battlefield, launching sustained offensives across Ukraine’s eastern front. These advances have allowed Moscow to gradually gain territory over the past several months.
By late August, Ukraine for the first time acknowledged that Russian troops had entered the Dnipropetrovsk region, confirming Moscow’s earlier assertions of progress in the area.
Currently, the Russian army is estimated to control roughly one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory. Despite this, the Kremlin continues to demand that Kyiv withdraw from the eastern Donbas region as a precondition for ending hostilities a demand Ukrainian officials have firmly rejected.
The Dnipropetrovsk region is notable because it is not among the five territories that Russia has formally claimed as its own. Those regions include Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin remains intent on seizing the entirety of Ukraine. Zelensky stressed that even if Kyiv agreed to cede land, Moscow would not halt its offensive until it achieved full occupation.
For its part, the Kremlin confirmed the same day that peace talks with Ukraine remain on “pause.” Several attempts at negotiations in recent months have collapsed without progress, leaving the war sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 grinding on with no diplomatic resolution in sight.
What you should know
Russia claimed on Saturday that its forces had captured Novomykolaivka in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, though Kyiv disputed the assertion.
Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory and demands Kyiv’s withdrawal from the Donbas as a condition for ending the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky maintains that Vladimir Putin’s objective is to occupy all of Ukraine, while peace talks remain stalled.
