Ukraine just pushed Russia back in Donbas using robots and exploding tanks

Ukraine says it just forced more than 250 Russian soldiers to surrender.

It happened in the eastern Donbas region. The operation is called Vivaldi.

And here's the part that makes it different. Ukraine used ground robots, dropped more than 10 kilometres behind Russian lines. And it turned old Soviet armoured vehicles into remote-controlled bombs. Soldiers call them Trojan vehicles.

So who's running this? Ukraine's Third Army Corps, led by Brigadier General Andriy Biletskyi. They started it in mid-September, in the Lyman sector of northern Donetsk Oblast. It's still going.

Here's how it built up. On 15 September, Biletskyi confirmed the operation. Ukraine said it had cleared 75 square kilometres and taken back 10. Five days later, two more villages were freed. 40 more square kilometres back. Russian losses at that point, Ukraine said, were around 3,000 troops.

Then came phase three. Announced a week ago, on 28 September. Three more villages liberated. Full control restored over two others. 51 more square kilometres retaken. Ukraine says that phase alone cost Russia about 2,000 troops — and that's where the 250 prisoners come in.

So what's the total? Ukraine's Third Army Corps says 176 square kilometres taken back since Vivaldi began. The Institute for the Study of War, which tracks the war independently, puts it lower — nearly 150 square kilometres tied to this operation specifically. Still a real reversal, either way.

And here's why that reversal matters. For months, Russia had been grinding slowly toward Sloviansk and Kramatorsk — two of the last major Ukrainian-held cities in Donetsk Oblast. But the Institute for the Study of War found that in September, Russia seized about 175 square kilometres and lost 256 elsewhere. First month in a long while that Russia lost more ground than it gained.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the troops behind Vivaldi five days ago. He says the operation has taken back 176 square kilometres, and that 5,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded since it started. But he's also used a different number elsewhere — about 140 square kilometres. The figures out of Kyiv don't all line up. And CNN says it cannot independently verify the surrender video or Ukraine's wider claims.

Now, the tactics. Ukraine airdropped robotic ground systems, armed with heavy guns, more than 10 kilometres behind Russian lines — controlled remotely from command centres on Ukrainian-held ground. Nobody has done that in this war before. It's the first known case of ground robots smuggled behind Russia's defensive lines.

Alongside the robots, Ukraine packed old BTR-60 armoured carriers with explosives and sent them in unmanned. One of those Trojan vehicle assaults is tied to the fighting near Nove and Katerynivka.