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Eastern Ukraine campaign
Ongoing military offensive in Ukraine / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ukraine's easternmost oblasts, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv, have been the site of an ongoing theatre of operation since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Eastern Ukraine campaign | |||||||
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Part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine | |||||||
Clockwise from top left:
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Belligerents | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Units involved | |||||||
See order of battle | See order of battle | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
38,000+ soldiers (late March 2022)[2][3][4] 50,000–62,000 soldiers (early April 2022)[5] 10,000–20,000 mercenaries (per European officials, early April 2022)[6][7][8] 300–500 Syrian and Libyan mercenaries (per ISW, early April 2022)[9] 180,000 soldiers (per Ukraine, July 2023)[10] |
125,000 soldiers (in eastern Ukraine)[11] 40,000–50,000 (as of the start of the Battle of Donbas)[12] |
The battle of Donbas was a major offensive in the eastern theatre that took place in mid-2022.[13] By the culmination of the offensive in July 2022, Russian forces and their separatist allies had captured the cities of Sievierodonetsk,[14] Lysychansk,[15] Rubizhne[16] and Izium.[17] However, in early September, Ukraine launched a major counteroffensive in the east, which recaptured the cities of Izium, Balakliia, Kupiansk, Sviatohirsk[18] and the strategic city of Lyman.[19] The counteroffensive stalled east of the Oskil river, and a campaign in eastern Kharkiv Oblast and western Luhansk Oblast has continued since, though Donetsk Oblast has remained the most active area of the frontline.
In the winter of 2022–2023, Russia focused on capturing the city of Bakhmut, largely destroying the city in one of the bloodiest battles of the war, and fully capturing it in May 2023. In June 2023, Ukraine launched another major counteroffensive across the entire frontline, capturing some Russian positions along Bakhmut's outskirts and in southwestern Donetsk Oblast, though not making the major gains in the Donbas which had been sought. By November 2023, this counteroffensive had largely stalled in the east and Russia began making new offensive operations to capture territory, gaining control of Avdiivka and Marinka in Donetsk Oblast by February 2024.[20][21] Following the capture of Avdiivka, Russian forces advanced to form a salient northwest of it and captured the settlement of Ocheretyne in April 2024 and began contesting Krasnohorivka, southwest of Donetsk, and Chasiv Yar, west of Bakhmut, and launched an offensive towards the city of Toretsk in June 2024.