MOSCOW 18 OCTOBER 2026 (Agencies) – Russian forces have taken the key Ukrainian stronghold of Dobropolye in Donbass, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov told President Vladimir Putin on Friday, a claim Ukraine has rejected as false.
During a meeting with Putin, Gerasimov said assault units from several brigades had taken part in the operation and were searching basements for any remaining Ukrainian troops. Putin praised the “coordinated and highly professional” actions of the Russian assault units, noting that Ukrainian forces had turned Dobropolye, known in Ukrainian as Dobropillia, into a “robust stronghold”. In late September, the Russian Defence Ministry announced that its forces had encircled the town.
Gerasimov also told Putin that Russian forces had captured 92 settlements and more than 1,800 square kilometres of territory since September 1, according to Reuters and AFP. On Saturday, the Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had taken control of eight more settlements, including Dobropillia, Interfax reported.
Ukraine’s General Staff rejected the claims on Saturday. Spokesman Andriy Kovaliov told Interfax-Ukraine that Gerasimov’s briefing was based on lies, manipulation and exaggeration, and that Dobropillia remained under Ukrainian control. He said it was not the first time Russian forces had reported capturing the town, accusing them of trying to pass off their wishes as reality. Kovaliov also dismissed Russian claims of having captured Kostiantynivka and reaching the outskirts of Kramatorsk, and said that more territory had been liberated by Ukrainian forces since the start of autumn than Russia had captured. Reuters said there was no independent verification of either side’s account of the battlefield.
Russia has framed the town’s capture as another step in its advance toward the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, a cluster of cities in the northwest of the Donetsk region that forms Ukraine’s last major fortified stronghold in the area. Russian advances along the front line have slowed this year, but Moscow’s forces have been bearing down on the so-called fortress belt cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, whose capture would bring Russia closer to its goal of seizing the entire Donetsk region.