Zelenskyy and Ukrainian military chief claim Russian offensives in 2025 have failed

(Patria) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his top military commander said on Friday that Russian offensives have not achieved their goals and that Moscow is suffering heavy losses on the battlefield.

Zelenskyy, speaking in his nightly video address, said Ukrainian forces had inflicted heavy losses on Russian troops in a counteroffensive near Dobropillia in the eastern Donetsk region. Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky told reporters that "the Russian spring and summer campaign has effectively been halted," Reuters reported.

Russia is making gradual gains on several parts of the front line, after a large-scale deployment of reconnaissance and assault drones prevented the rapid advances seen in 2022.

Ukraine says the small advances come at a high human cost. Both sides in the war rarely discuss casualties, but some Western intelligence estimates put the number of dead and wounded in Ukraine at over a million.

Zelenskyy, speaking after hearing reports from commanders, said that around Dobropillia, near the logistical hub of Pokrovsk, "the Russians wanted to achieve one of their significant breakthroughs along the front, but our forces are neutralizing them."

Zelenskyy disputed Putin's statement when he told some leaders that his forces were achieving their goals on the battlefield.

"For some time now, they have been forced, year after year, to invent new reasons why the deadlines they announced are constantly being postponed," he said.

Small Russian infantry attacks

Syrsky said the active front line is now 1,250 km long and an estimated 712,000 Russian soldiers are involved in the fighting in Ukraine. He said Russian plans to create a "buffer zone" in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions in the north and northeast, capture Pokrovsk, and seize the entire Donetsk region have failed.

Capturing all of Donetsk is a key war goal for Russia, which currently controls over 70% of the region.

Syrsky said the Russians have been attacking since the beginning of summer with a tactic he called "a thousand cuts" - a large number of small infantry assaults.

"This consists of the simultaneous use of a large number of small assault groups - four to six soldiers advancing using the terrain, ravines and wooded areas, with the main goal of penetrating as deep as possible into our territory."

Speaking about the Russian breakthrough in August near Dobropillia, Syrsky said Ukraine had cut off Russian forces along the Kazennyi Torets River in what he called a "trap."
A sudden change in Trump's rhetoric The commander added that in the last two months, Ukraine has struck 85 military or military-industrial facilities on Russian territory, including air bases, warehouses and factories.

This week, US President Donald Trump suddenly changed his view of the war from one where he said Kyiv had no cards to play to one where Ukraine could regain all the territory it has lost so far - roughly twenty percent of its total territory. However, he did not offer significant new aid to Ukraine to achieve these goals and shifted the burden to European allies.

Russia claims it is advancing in Ukraine and that it would be best for Kyiv to negotiate peace as soon as possible. Ukraine has rejected Russian conditions for negotiations, saying they would amount to surrender.