October 2, 2026
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Fierce fighting raged Thursday in southeastern Ukraine, where a Western official said Kyiv has launched a major push and Russian President Vladimir Putin said “hostilities have intensified significantly.”
Battles in recent weeks have taken place on multiple points along the 930-mile front line as Ukraine wages a counteroffensive with Western-supplied weapons and Western-trained troops against Russian forces who invaded 17 months ago.
Putin praised the “heroism” with which Russian soldiers were repelling attacks in the Zaporizhzhia region of the southeast, claiming Moscow’s troops not only destroyed Ukraine’s military equipment but also inflicted heavy losses to Kyiv’s forces.
He insisted on state TV that Ukraine’s push in the area “wasn’t successful,” although it was not possible to independently verify his report. Putin was in St. Petersburg at a summit of African leaders. Putin has insisted for weeks that Kyiv’s counteroffensive is failing, without providing evidence.
Ukraine has committed thousands of troops in the region in recent days, according to a Western official who was not authorized to comment publicly on the matter.
Since June, Ukraine has been pushing in the area, but it’s unclear how the current effort differs from their previous attempts that achieved only incremental gains.
Ukrainian officials have been mostly silent about battlefield developments since they began early counteroffensive operations, although Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said troops are advancing toward the city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhizhia region.
Though that could be a tactical feint, and both governments have used disinformation to gain battlefield advantages, such a maneuver would be in line with what some analysts had predicted.
They envisioned a counteroffensive to punch through the land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, toward Melitopol, near the Sea of Azov. That could split Russian forces into two and cut supply lines to units farther west. Russia currently controls the whole Sea of Azov coast.
The counteroffensive faces deeply entrenched Russian defenses featuring minefields, trenches and anti-tank obstacles.
The Institute of Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, reported that Ukrainian forces launched “a significant mechanized counteroffensive operation in western Zaporizhzhia region” Wednesday and “appear to have broken through certain pre-prepared Russian defensive positions.”
It cited Russian sources, including the Russian Ministry of Defense and several prominent Russian military bloggers.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, visited military commanders and workers caring for the wounded north of that region.
He said via a Telegram post that he was in Dnipro, along the Dnieper River to the north of Zaporizhzhia, meeting with military commanders to discuss air defenses, ammunition supplies and supervision over regional recruitment centers.
He also visited a medical facility caring for the wounded from the front, thanking the staff and emphasizing the importance of their work in saving lives.
A recent increase in the arrival of wounded at one Dnipro hospital hinted that the tempo of nearby fighting had increased.
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