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Chornobyl: News

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Inside Operation Vivaldi — how Ukraine uses drones, robots to liberate territory in Donetsk Oblast

DONETSK OBLAST — On a screen, live footage from a reconnaissance drone shows two men in Ukrainian pixel camouflage dashing in short bursts through the ruins of apartment buildings. Then they vanish into a basement. It is late summer, and the 3rd Army Corps and attached units are fully engaged in a counteroffensive in the Lyman sector called Operation Vivaldi. Russian forces are trying to recapture Lyman, a city in Donetsk Oblast that Russian officials have claimed their forces control. Ukrainia

Tsyhan assembles a Dart in the Lyman sector, Ukraine, on Aug. 11, 2026.

About Chornobyl

Chornobyl in northern Ukraine is the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, which occurred in 1986. The site is approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Kyiv. Russian forces seized the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone on February 24, 2022, occupying the contaminated area until late March 2022 and causing disruptions to radiation monitoring. Ukrainian authorities restored control after Russian troops withdrew in the spring of 2022.

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