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Ukrainian forces have liberated three more villages and restored full control to two others on Monday in a push that saw Kyiv take some 250 Russian prisoners and inflict 2,000 casualties, officials said.
Ukraine’s 3rd Army Corps successfully retook the villages of Ridkodub, Nove, and Katerynivka in the Donetsk region under Operation Vivaldi, a phased counter-assault aimed at liberating conquered Ukrainian land, Brig. Gen. Andrii Biletskyi said.
Biletskyi said the operation saw his troops trick Russia into desperately trying to protect a position south of their true goal, allowing the Ukrainian soldiers to reconquer 20 square miles of territory — an area about the size of Manhattan.
“This forced them to pointlessly burn through their reserves in counterattacks in that direction; in reality, the enemy slept through the main strike, which was aimed at capturing Nove,” Biletskyi boasted.
Details of Operation Vivaldi were made public earlier this month, highlighting Ukraine’s widening counterassault along the frontlines this year that has resulted in Russia losing hundreds of square miles of land.
Along with retaking the three villages on Monday, Biletskyi said his forces were also able to restore full Ukrainian control to the villages of Karpivka and Novomykhailivka.
The operation was merely the “third season” of Operation Vivaldi, with Ukrainian troops modifying Soviet-era BTR-60 armored vehicles into unmanned kamikaze bombs to break through Russian defenses.
The village of Nove was key to the third phase of Operation Vivaldi as the settlement had been converted into a key Russian hub in the region.
With the newly liberated land, Ukrainian troops now have a pincer around the Zelena-Dolyna settlement, the area Russian forces were tricked into defending.
Operation Vivaldi alone has so far liberated nearly 68 square miles of land from Russian forces, according to the Ukrainian military.
Monday’s operation also saw Ukraine take more than 250 Russian troops prisoner, with Biletskyi claiming it has become common for entire units to surrender.
“The idea that ‘Russians don’t surrender’ from movies in practice turned into entire units surrendering in full — including officers, pilots and artillerymen,” Biletskyi said.
“We hope to exchange them for Ukrainian soldiers currently in captivity in the near future,” he added.
Kyiv has recaptured around 288 square miles — nearly the size of New York City — in the first seven months of 2026, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The occupiers continue to be eliminated, and the designated objectives are being achieved,” Zelensky said in a statement on Operation Vivaldi.
Kremlin troops still control about 45,000 square miles of territory, or about 20% of Ukraine, according to an analysis from think-tank CSIS.
