Operation Vivaldi's 3rd Phase Ends With Even More Ukrainian Gains

Operation Vivaldi has become one of the most productive and strategically beneficial offensives of the war. 

Not only has it captured significant amounts of territory, but it has resulted in massive Russian casualties, disrupted and materially delayed the Kremlin's hopes for an attack on Ukraine's Fortress Belt and has further undermined Putin's claims of inevitability. And the counteroffensive has only completed three of its four planned phases. JL

Sam Rivera reports in Infohandle:

Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps closed what it called the third “season” of Operation Vivaldi, reporting that its troops had cleared five settlements north of Lyman, regained 51 square kilometers of ground, and taken more than 250 Russian soldiers prisoner in a single operational burst, marking the first public accounting of the phase. The 51-square-kilometer gain brings the operation’s officially acknowledged total to 176 square kilometers since commanders named Vivaldi on September 15, after earlier phases on September 20 freed Shandryholove and Derylove. For Kyiv, the combination of territorial gain, large prisoner hauls, and public messaging serves both the battlefield and diplomatic audiences 

Ukraine’s 3rd Army Corps closed what it called the third “season” of Operation Vivaldi on Monday, reporting that its troops had cleared five settlements north of Lyman, regained 51 square kilometers of ground, and taken more than 250 Russian soldiers prisoner in a single operational burst. Corps commander Brigadier-General Andrii Biletskyi disclosed the tally in a video address, marking the first public accounting of the phase since Ukrainian forces kept the offensive under tight operational security for much of the summer.

What changed on the map

Biletskyi said Ukrainian units restored full control over Karpivka and Novomykhailivka and completely liberated Ridkodub, Katerynivka, and Nove. The corps framed Nove as a bridgehead settlement whose capture unlocked movement along the Lyman axis in northern Donetsk Oblast, where Russian pressure had threatened the fortress city for months. The 51-square-kilometer gain brings the operation’s officially acknowledged total to 176 square kilometers since commanders named Vivaldi on September 15, after earlier phases on September 20 freed Shandryholove and Derylove.

Open-source analysts had tracked Ukrainian probing attacks in the sector since late spring, but the General Staff withheld detailed maps until Biletskyi’s staged releases. POLITICO and the Kyiv Independent noted that independent monitors have corroborated broad movement east of Lyman even where exact village names remain contested in fog.

Prisoners and Russian response

The prisoner count—more than 250 in this phase alone—stands out in a war where both sides often trade smaller groups during localized collapses. Biletskyi also claimed more than 2,000 Russian personnel killed or wounded in the phase, figures the corps has not independently verified. Russia’s defense ministry dismissed Ukraine’s announcement as a “smokescreen for Kyiv’s Western curators” and described the fighting as unsuccessful infiltration by small assault groups, a line Moscow has used after other Ukrainian counteroffensive claims.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pointed to broader momentum in a Sunday message, saying Ukrainian units had “neutralized” 10,660 Russian troops killed or wounded across all active sectors in the past week. He linked steady Ukrainian pressure to limiting Russia’s ability to mount larger offensives, without tying that statistic solely to Vivaldi.

Tactics and what comes next

Biletskyi highlighted modified Soviet-era armored personnel carriers used as “kamikaze” ground drones during the push, a rare public mention of unmanned ground vehicles in a corps-level update. Ukrainian commanders have leaned on drone-saturated reconnaissance along the Lyman–Pokrovsk belt while Russian glide-bomb strikes continue against cities far behind the line, including Monday’s salvos that damaged Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district and Kharkiv apartment blocks.

Operation Vivaldi’s next phase is unclear. Biletskyi did not announce new objectives, and the corps has released updates in multi-day tranches rather than daily bulletins. For Kyiv, the combination of territorial gain, large prisoner hauls, and public messaging serves both the battlefield and diplomatic audiences as U.S. envoys renew push for negotiations. Whether the Lyman axis can sustain pressure through autumn mud season will depend on ammunition flows, manpower rotation, and Russia’s ability to redeploy reserves from quieter sectors.