Ukraine is ramping up its counteroffensive regaining territories from Russian troops

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Revealed on 17/02/2026 - 10:28 GMT+1

Ukrainian forces are ramping up the tempo and the size of Kyiv’s counteroffensive, after they've managed to wipe out weeks of Russia’s good points and liberated a number of small settlements in southeastern Ukraine within the area of Zaporizhzhia over the previous week, experiences present.

In accordance with the US-based Institute for the Examine of Battle assume tank (ISW), the primary Ukrainian advance has been recorded roughly 80 kilometres east of Zaporizhzhia metropolis, the place Russian forces had been making good points because the summer season of 2025.

Ukrainian forces have additionally regained management of territory in north-eastern and jap Ukraine, on the Kharkiv, Kostiantynivka, Pokrovsk and Novopavlivka fronts.

Kyiv troops began slowing down Russian troops a few week in the past and in lots of areas largely stopped their advance.

The Starlink issue The ISW acknowledged that the Ukrainian counterattacks are seemingly leveraging the recent block on Russian forces’ access to Starlink.

From the start of February, Ukraine’s defence ministry and Elon Musk’s SpaceX have blocked Russian troops from utilizing Starlink to function and management assault drones over Ukraine.

Regardless of quite a few statements from SpaceX that the corporate doesn't promote or ship Starlink to Russia and "doesn't do enterprise of any variety with the Russian authorities or its army," Ukrainian authorities knowledgeable the corporate that Moscow troops had been mounting Starlink methods on Russian assault drones to strike deeper into Ukraine.

Ukrainian officers mentioned they collected proof of “hundred” of assaults by Starlink- outfitted drones. This allowed Russian operators to bypass Ukraine’s digital defences that disable drones by jamming GPS and radio alerts.

Whereas SpaceX took obligatory measures from its facet, Ukraine additionally launched a verification of all Starlink terminals within the nation in response to the unauthorised use of Starlink by Russian forces.

Since then, Russian troops and the Kremlin-affiliated milbloggers complained about communications and command and management points on the battlefield.

Kyiv officers acknowledged that the Russian army command is making ready for the summer season 2026 offensive within the Slovyansk-Kramatorsk path or the Orikhiv-Zaporizhzhia metropolis path — or each — however Russian forces are actually struggling to grab the mandatory beginning positions to launch the offensive on the command’s supposed timeline.

Ukrainian cyber forces’ operation As Russian troops misplaced their unauthorised entry to Starlink and as Kyiv launched a compulsory registration and Starlink "whitelist system,” Moscow forces have been looking for an answer and presumably a loophole within the rules.

In flip, Ukrainian cyber forces posed as a Russian-linked activation service providing to assist restore terminals that had been disconnected underneath the brand new registration guidelines.

Russian troopers and operators have been instructed to submit figuring out data and the coordinates of their terminals underneath the guise that the gadgets could be reactivated by means of Ukrainian administrative service centres.

Ukrainian group later mentioned it collected 2,420 knowledge packets associated to Russian-used terminals and transferred them to Ukrainian regulation enforcement and defence companies.

The information was then supplied to authorities "for remaining switch into brick mode," that means the disabling of the terminals.

Ukrainian cyber forces declare the terminals have been subsequently deactivated.

The group additionally mentioned it acquired €5,000 from Russian troopers in search of to revive connectivity. The cash was donated to Ukrainian drone fundraising efforts.

The operation additionally helped establish 31 Ukrainian "traitors" who have been allegedly prepared to help Russian forces by registering terminals. In accordance with the assertion, that data has been forwarded to Ukraine’s Safety Service (SBU).