Author, Oleg Chernysh
Place of work, BBC Ukrainian Service, Kyiv
Published 4 minutes ago
Reading time: 5 min
On September 7, the commander of the Third Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Andrei Biletsky, published a video from the center of Svyatogorsk in the Donetsk region, which the Russian Ministry of Defense and Vladimir Putin personally had already declared captured. Moreover, according to OSINT analysts, the Ukrainian army continues its counter-offensive operation in the Liman direction and has probably already achieved significant success. Sources from the BBC Ukrainian Service note that this “secret operation is still ongoing.”
This is a translation of a text by a correspondent of the BBC Ukrainian Service. The original in Ukrainian can be read here.
Vladimir Putin announced the capture of Svyatogorsk on September 1. This city is located 15 km northwest of Liman, and on its outskirts there is an important shrine for Orthodox Christians - the Holy Dormition Lavra.
The next day, information about the capture of the city was disseminated by the Russian Ministry of Defense. The department did not provide any evidence.
Even then, these statements aroused skepticism even among Russian Z-bloggers. The fact is that the settlement was at that time approximately 10–12 km from the front line, and there was no information about the successful infiltration of Russian attack aircraft in its direction.
The day after the statements of the Russian military command, a number of Ukrainian journalists walked around Svyatogorsk and did not find any Russians there.
On the afternoon of September 7, the press service of the Third Army Corps, which is responsible for this section of the front, distributed a video with a statement from General Andrei Biletsky, who was walking freely and even without a helmet along the streets of Svyatogorsk and near the Holy Dormition Lavra. The video showed that civilian cars were moving around the city, and the settlement itself was under the complete control of the Ukrainian army.
Moreover, the commander of the Third Army Corps calls Svyatogorsk a “rear city.”
“It’s not that there have never been Russian soldiers in Svyatogorsk [in 2022, this city was under the occupation of the Russian army for several months. - Ed.], but here, in principle, you can walk without any problems, although preferably in a bulletproof vest... This is the rear zone of our corps, everything is fine here,” he said.
By the standards of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the wording “rear zone” may indicate that the populated area is located at least 20–30 km from the front line.
And subsequent reports from Ukrainian, Russian and foreign OSINT analysts indeed confirmed that the Ukrainian army probably managed not only to push the enemy back from Svyatogorsk, but also to recapture significant territory from him in the Liman region.
Elimination of the Russian bridgehead
Informed sources of the BBC Ukrainian Service in the military-political leadership of Ukraine confirm the fact of the offensive operation in the Liman area, but emphasize “that it is still ongoing.” Accordingly, there are no official details of this operation yet.
The press service of the Third Army Corps said it could not comment on the matter “for security reasons.”
At the same time, a number of foreign OSINT analysts reported that the offensive of the Ukrainian military on this section of the front had already been successful and managed to liberate hundreds of kilometers of territory, cutting off the “protrusion” of the Russian army that had formed northwest of the Liman.
We are talking about the bridgehead of the Russian army, which it captured on the right bank of the Black Stallion River in the summer-autumn of 2025.
Then the Russian military was able to force the water barrier and advance 17–20 km deep into Ukrainian territory in the direction of Svyatogorsk. They also crossed the Nitrius River, and in March of this year the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the capture of the village of Yarovaya, located just 5 km from the Svyatogorsk Lavra.
Further advance of the Russian military could lead to the fall of Liman, which would be cut off from logistics routes, followed by a significant complication of the situation to the south - in the area of the Slavyansko-Kramatorsk agglomeration.
According to French military OSINT analyst Clément Molin, the Ukrainian Defense Forces launched a counter-offensive operation in the Liman area at the end of May, which lasted almost four months in complete secrecy.
The expert noted that the parties practically did not publish content with the geolocation of these places, but he, in particular, analyzed where exactly Russian air bombs landed. This allowed him to draw conclusions about who controlled the specified territory.
Molen noted that back in June-July, the Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to liberate a number of villages in this direction, but information about this was classified. Now, according to him, the Ukrainian army has completely cut off the Russian salient, throwing the Russian military behind the Zherebets River.
The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), in its September 7 report, refers to Russian military bloggers who are “increasingly acknowledging the facts of Ukrainian counterattacks in the Liman area.”
“ISW mapping methodology underestimates the scale of likely Ukrainian successes in current counterattacks in the Liman axis, and additional data collection will likely reveal the full extent of Ukrainian victories in the Liman axis in the fall of 2026,” the summary says.
Ukrainian military analyst Mikhail Zhirokhov told the Ukrainian BBC service that his sources among the military of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirm information about the successful liquidation of the Russian bridgehead at Liman.
“They very carefully confirmed to me that this was indeed the case, they managed to cut off the Russian salient,” he said.
The analyst explained: “The fact is that this Russian protrusion is “overripe.” The Russians advanced too far, and the flanks were not covered, the necessary forces and means were not there. Ukrainian groups were able to inflict two counter strikes on the Russians in the direction of the narrow “isthmus” of this advance. This was his most vulnerable spot."
Zhirokhov emphasizes that, according to his data, the Ukrainian army not only created a “kill zone” here with the help of attack UAVs, but physically cleared the said territory from the enemy.
In his opinion, the Ukrainian Armed Forces will not continue the offensive deep into the territory, but will hold defenses along the line of the Black Stallion River in order to prevent its crossing.
This could destroy the plans of the Russian military to capture Liman and reach the rear of the group defending Slavyansk.
What Russia says
Official Russian sources have not commented on Ukrainian counterattacks in the Liman area (the Kremlin uses the Soviet name "Red Liman").
Moreover, according to statements by the Russian Ministry of Defense, as of mid-August, the Russian army was carrying out a “cleansing of the Liman” and “cut off the logistics” of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this direction.
However, from the messages of Russian Z-bloggers a completely different picture emerges. Some of them even began to talk about retreating or encircling the Russian group.
Thus, the large telegram channel “Two Majors” (almost 1.2 million subscribers) stated on September 8 that the situation in the Liman direction was “complicated.”
It is indicated that Ukrainian forces are attacking from the northern direction in the area of the villages of Redkodub and Karpovka, entering the villages of Yampolevka and Zarechnoye, located on the left bank of the Cherny Zherebets River, and have also already knocked out the Russian army from the south-eastern outskirts of the Liman.
However, he denies that there is an “order for the retreat of troops” in the Liman area. “The guys are holding the line,” he wrote.
