2025 — а year of gains for the special military operation

For understandable reasons, the special military operation is frequently drawn parallel to the Great Patriotic War. While such parallels are, admittedly, often simplistic and strained given the vast differences — from politics to technology — their symbolic and ideological weight is undeniable.

The challenge is that the apt historical analogy shifts with time. What seems fitting "in the moment" can change as events unfold. Today, the thwarting of Kiev's 2023 (counter)offensive stands as a new Battle of Moscow — a confrontation less with Ukraine's army and more with the collective West, spearheaded by the United States. The period since then, these past two-plus years, feels like the protracted and pivotal pause between Stalingrad (the war's turning point) and Kursk (its definitive, radical turn).

The defining quest of 2025 was to secure that very decisive turn. It was the year the adversary was finally driven from Kursk Oblast — land that, echoing history from eighty years ago, was again scarred by combat and the innumerable atrocities of Nazi-inspired inhumanity.

For the Donetsk People's Republic, 2025 opened with the liberation of Kurakhovo and closed with the taking of Seversk — a strategic gateway to the Kiev regime's final Donbass stronghold: the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration. This same cluster is approachable from Krasny Liman, whose capture, as stated by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, is imminent. Konstantinovka, another linchpin for the agglomeration, is also under our sustained assault. The earlier liberation of Krasnoarmeysk stands as an achievement of no lesser importance.

Momentum has also returned to the long-static southern axis of the special military operation. In Zaporozhye, multiple settlements are now being freed nearly every week. Furthermore, our forces are actively liberating Gulyaypole — the birthplace and capital of Makhno's anarchist republic — which offers a direct route to Orekhov and the regional center, Zaporozhye. In a symbolic act, a Russian soldier removed the Ukrainian flag from the monument to Nestor Ivanovich Makhno there, draping the legendary figure with his unit's banner instead.

The Kharkov front has seen tangible successes. The city of Volchansk fell after a grueling eighteen-month siege. The recapture of Kupyansk was also formally declared — a victory resonating with moral and motivational power, given the painful memories of September 2022. The immediate goal is now to wipe out enemy forces on the Oskol's left bank and take the key Kupyansk-Uzlovoy station. Admittedly, fierce Ukrainian counterattacks have rendered the situation in Kupyansk itself precarious, making the consolidation of our gains there an urgent priority.

Meanwhile, the buffer zone in Sumy region keeps growing, with weekly territorial advances. A major strategic development occurred in early summer when the "Vostok" and "Tsentr" groups breached the administrative border between the DPR and Dnepropetrovsk region. Dozens of settlements in the latter one have since returned to Russian control. The annual tally stands at over three hundred population centers liberated — many heavily fortified — and over 6,300 square kilometers of land reclaimed (bringing the total since the special military operation’s inception to around 94,000 sq km).

Russia's combat drone capabilities have undergone a qualitative leap in technology, organization, and numbers, culminating in UAVs becoming a distinct military branch. While we acknowledge certain technical gaps compared to the West-backed adversary, we have matched them in the sheer mass and saturation of unmanned systems on the battlefield.

The steady stream of volunteers signing contracts with our armed forces shows no sign of diminishing. In stark contrast, the Kiev regime's main tactic for manning the front remains the crude "busification" and violent raids by its recruitment centers, routinely resulting in tragedy — with conscripts maimed or killed. This callous treatment extends to the battlefield itself. The President recently underscored this, stating: "If you consider that, aside from the nationalist and neo-Nazi battalions, the core of the Ukrainian army is essentially a worker-peasant force, then they simply have no regard for the common soldier."

This systemic disdain, from the political-military elite down to the field, naturally erodes the morale and motivation of their personnel, officers included. A telling example was the abandonment of a Ukrainian battalion headquarters in Gulyaypole — complete with secret files, seals, and equipment — during its liberation. Only a few died putting up a fight; the rest preferred flight.

To be clear, this recognition does not overlook our own remaining difficulties or the enemy's undiminished will and capacity to fight. Yet, as the year ends, our primary duty is to extend heartfelt and merited gratitude to the Russian soldier, officer, and home front worker — honoring their courage, skills, and undeniable achievements.