Ukraine Is Disrupting Russia's Offensive Plans... And Moscow Is Losing Ground

By Kyiv's count, Ukraine took back more than one thousand square kilometres of its own land in 2026. Three operations did it, and none of them looked like a counteroffensive: a drive by the Air Assault Forces in the south, Operation Vivaldi north of Lyman, and Operation Veles near Kupiansk, which ran fifteen kilometres through a gas pipe barely more than a metre across. This documentary shows what the three had in common. Each went after the one thing a Russian plan could not work without: a pipe Russian soldiers had used for more than a year to get behind Ukrainian positions, a staging ground for a spring offensive, and a bulge in the line that a pincer movement depended on. It sets Kyiv's own figures beside what ISW, AFP and DeepState saw on their maps, goes back to the 2023 offensive for the lesson Ukrainian planners took from it, and ends with Zelensky's condition on missiles for Patriot batteries. Area and casualty figures from Ukrainian units are their own counts, and the video says where the Kyiv Independent could not verify them. What you'll see: How ISW and DeepState saw Russia lose more ground than it gained in April, and its smallest monthly gain since October 2023 in May The summer of 2023: Robotyne, thirty-one soldiers crawling eighteen hours through a minefield, and what the offensive cost Why the 2026 operations tried to break plans, one at a time, instead of the front The belt of drones, about twenty kilometres deep, that changed how infantry moves Russian soldiers walking through gas pipelines at Sudzha and Kupiansk, and Khartiia's advance of more than fifteen kilometres underground The Oleksandrivka staging ground and the Air Assault Forces' drive from 29 January Operation Vivaldi: how the Third Army Corps emptied the salient north of Lyman, village by village The scale of it all: under two tenths of one per cent of Ukraine Zelensky's warning about supplies and air defence, and the 3 November attack on the energy system Sources and image credits are shown on screen at the end. CHAPTERS 0:00 What changed 1:26 The 2023 lesson 4:07 Operation Veles: the pipe 7:09 The staging ground 9:28 Operation Vivaldi 11:54 What it bought If you want to follow what happens on this front this winter, subscribe to the channel.