Ukraine confirms Russia entered Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, reports advance stopped
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Editor's note: The article was updated with statements from the Ukrainian military.
Russian forces failed to capture the villages of Zaporizke and Novoheorhiivka in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, but active fighting is ongoing in the region, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on Aug. 26.
The statement comes after the DeepState monitoring group said that the two small settlements lying near the administrative borders between the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts were occupied by Russia.
This marked the first time the battlefield monitors reported Russia taking control of settlements in the central-eastern region that Moscow's forces sought to penetrate for the past few months.
"The Ukrainian Defense Forces have stopped the advance of the Russian invaders and continue to control the village of Zaporizke, despite all the efforts of... (Russian forces), who (are) trying to capture this settlement," the General Staff said in a statement on social media.
"Active hostilities are also ongoing in the area of the village of Novoheorhiivka," the military said, adding that Russia is losing "dozens" of soldiers every day.
Victor Tregubov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Dnipro group of forces, told the Kyiv Independent that claims about the capture of Zaporizke appeared already on Aug. 25 and were not confirmed by Ukraine at the time.
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed to have captured the villages as of Aug. 25.
Talking to the BBC, Tregubov added that this is the "first attack of such a large scale" in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
Previously, Russian forces attempted to enter the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast village of Dachne on several occasions but were repelled, the Ukrainian military has said.
DeepState shows Dachne mostly in the "gray zone," an area contested between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media in June that Russian forces were conducting operations in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast as part of efforts to create a so-called "buffer zone" on Ukrainian territory.
The central-eastern region suffers daily Russian aerial and artillery attacks and borders Donetsk Oblast, a focal point of Russia's invasion since 2014 and a major battleground since the full-scale invasion in 2022.
