Ukraine Belatedly Confirms Russian Troops Have Breached Central Oblast & Industrial Heartland

Several more villages fell to the Russian army in Donetsk at the end of last week, and the battlefield momentum has continued into Tuesday, as Ukraine has acknowledged for the first time that Russian troops have entered the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region.

Dnipropetrovsk is a central oblast which has long been spared from the main fighting. Russian forces have penetrated this strategic area, which suggests the war is still expanding, significantly beyond the annexed four territories. It is known as the industrial heartland and key production hub of the country.

“Yes, they have entered, and fighting is ongoing as of now,” a Ukrainian military spokesman for the Dnipro Operational Strategic Group of Forces told AFP.

Moscow had first announced it breached the region back in July, but Ukrainian officials had not acknowledged it until this week. Russia also says it has fully captured the villages of Zaporizke and Novogeorgiivka - something which Ukraine’s military leadership is disputing.

But Reuters is confirming, writing, “Russia has captured two villages in Ukraine’s southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukrainian open-source researchers confirmed on Tuesday, as Kremlin troops press an offensive amid a stalling diplomatic effort to end the war.”

“Ukraine’s outmanned and outgunned military has struggled to fend off grinding Russian advances in much of the east as Moscow increases pressure on Kyiv to give up territory in any peace negotiations,” the report adds.

All that the exhausted Ukrainian military can do at this point is keep sending drones into Russian territory. This again happened overnight as Ukraine’s special forces attacked logistical facilities in Crimea.

A Ukrainian military statement said facilities “that ensure the functioning and combat supply of the military units of the Russian army” were damaged and put out of commission.

President Trump is meanwhile still trying to strike a tone of cautious optimism when it comes to peace talks. On Monday he had confirmed speaking again with President Vladimir Putin.

“Every conversation I have with him is a good conversation. And then, unfortunately, a bomb is loaded up into Kyiv or someplace, and I get very angry about it,” Trump told reporters.

Russian forces have seized control of two villages in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk oblast – Zaporizke and Novoheorhiivka – making them the first villages in that region to fall to Russia, according to the Ukrainian war tracking group @Deepstate_UA. pic.twitter.com/YPMzhFb69y

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) August 26, 2025

The White House still doesn’t want to fully admit that Russia is winning the war, and that Kiev has no leverage. This means that realistically a swift ending would involve the US pressuring Zelensky to make serious compromises.

But by and large the Europeans are committed to seeing Ukraine stay in the fight. But this is a recipe for more death and destruction, and the war grinding on toward possible escalation with NATO.