Russia’s long-awaited spring offensive is focused on Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and making slow to no progress, with Ukrainian sources telling of renewed armored assaults with heavy losses for Kremlin attackers and little ground gained so far.
One of the most ambitious Russian assaults – with more than 500 infantrymen, dozens of armored vehicles, and non-armored buggies and ATVs – moved into open terrain near the village of Shandryholove on Thursday during daylight hours, a statement from the defending Ukrainian 3rd Army Corps said.
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Minefields, artillery, mortars and unmanned aircraft stopped the attack with combined fires, and retreating survivors were hunted down by bomber drones and first person view drones, the statement said.
Two 3rd Corps subordinate unit data feeds monitored by Kyiv Post confirmed the time and location of the engagement and some details of the claimed Ukrainian battlefield victory.
The independent Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in a Friday situation report confirmed the fact of the battle and said Russian attacks are intensifying across the front as part of a planned major Russian operation, with the Ukrainian fortress city of Slovyansk a top Kremlin objective.
“Russian forces have likely begun their anticipated spring-summer 2026 offensive against the Ukrainian Fortress Belt, Ukraine’s main defensive line in Donetsk Oblast. Russian forces have begun intensified ground operations in the Lyman direction to advance on Slovyansk,” the ISW review said in part.
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Ukraine’s military intelligence service published a call it said it had intercepted after a Russian soldier shot a comrade in panic, saying “I had to take him out – turned out it was one of ours.”
That the Russian spring offensive would kick off once warmer weather and thaws arrived in Ukraine, and that Moscow’s overall goal would be capture of Ukraine’s Donetsk region – a territory Russian forces have been attacking into and advancing at a snail’s pace for the past four years – had been openly discussed by Russian and Ukrainian milbloggers since mid-January. Reports Moscow would soon give the attack order intensified in March.
Gen. Olksandr Syrsky, commander in chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), in an announcement published on Monday by the General Staff, said his troops were holding the line across the front and inflicting heavy casualties. The statement entitled “Ukrainian Defense Forces Thwart Russian Aggressor’s Plans” said in part:
“Over the course of four days this week, from March 17 to 20, 2026, the intensity of the enemy’s offensive actions increased… The enemy tried to break through the defensive formations of our troops in several strategic sectors at once. Fierce battles unfolded along the entire line of combat engagement… Despite the enormous pressure and the involvement of significant reserves, the Russian command was unable to fulfill the assigned tasks.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday claimed that Russia’s Spring Offensive had begun and was bogging down in the teeth of strong Ukrainian defenses. He also claimed that AFU troops had caused “thousands” of Russian casualties over the past week.
Syrsky named the eastern Donetsk and southern Zaporizhzhia regions as the sectors currently seeing the most intensive Russian attacks. He credited effective reconnaissance and coordination between defending drone and artillery units for inflicting crippling losses on Russian forces.
Gen. Syrsky summarized:
“The command of the Russian troops threw tens of thousands of soldiers into ‘meat assaults’ but the price of this attempted offensive turned out to be catastrophic for the aggressor. Over four days of intensive assault actions, the enemy lost more than 6,090 servicemen killed and wounded.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry Monday in daily situation updates from Thursday through Monday made no mention of the Lyman/Shandryholove assault, which, in terms of heavy weapons fielded, was one of the most powerful attempted by Russian forces in months.
Uncharacteristically for that arm of the Kremlin, the Russian Defense Ministry from Friday through Monday announced no offensive operations and made no claims of Russian ground gains anywhere on the front. During past offensives, the defense ministry and other top Russian government agencies, particularly in the early days of the operation, pushed hard with frequently unsubstantiated narratives of continual advance by unstoppable Russian forces.
Evidence of intensifying combat activity across the front and particularly in the Donetsk sector was dense on Ukrainian military units and mainstream news feeds over the weekend and into Monday. Reports consistently told of continuing Russian attacks against Ukrainian battle lines that were holding.
A Monday announcement published by the 79th Air Assault Brigade, a veteran infantry unit, reported that in its sector near the city of Pokrovsk, Russian small group infantry assaults were made moving on foot, and that, thanks to clear weather, Ukrainian defenders were able to detect and destroy them.
Video published by the 79th showed images of bomber drones dropping their payloads into dugouts and FPV drones slamming into individual Russian infantrymen in terrain similar to the Pokrovsk sector.
Ukraine’s General Staff in a Monday morning situation report confirmed Russian assaults in Pokrovsk sector had been halted by existing defenses.
Another Monday report published by Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, a seasoned AFU unit, according to reports from others holding positions in the town of Myrhorod, adjacent to Pokrovsk, said Russian soldiers spotted by reconnaissance drones appeared to be seeking shelter and digging in. Marine video showed bomber drones dropping explosives to destroy and at times obliterate individual homes containing, the unit statement said, Russian soldiers inside.
Images published on Sunday by the 25th Airborne Brigade, a paratrooper infantry unit long-deployed in the Pokrovsk sector, showed FPV drones flying into ruined houses to strike men dressed in Russian uniforms.
The police special operations unit Liut in video published on Monday showed a rare infantry-on-infantry engagement in which Ukrainian troopers cleared a two-story utility building by tossing two anti-tank mines through the door to knock down most of the structure. Russian troops had infiltrated the unit’s sector near the Pokrovsk region town Kostyantynivka and had taken cover inside the building, the report said.
Kyiv Post was unable to confirm those individual unit claims independently.