Eastern front of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Eastern front
	Part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
	; Clockwise from top left: Bombing of Mariupol; Theater in Mariupol destroyed; Russian tank destroyed near Mariupol; Aftermath of a missile strike at Kramatorsk railway station;
Date	24 February 2022 – present; (3 years, 3 months and 4 weeks)
Location	Eastern Ukraine (Donetsk Oblast, Luhansk Oblast, Kharkiv Oblast)
Status	Ongoing
Territorial; changes	Russia and pro-Russian separatists control 98.5% of Luhansk Oblast and about 60% of Donetsk Oblast as of 17 September 2024; Russia retreats from all of Kharkiv Oblast west of the Oskil River and the strategic city of Lyman; Russia captures cities of Soledar, Bakhmut, Marinka, Avdiivka, Novohrodivka, Krasnohorivka, Ukrainsk, Vuhledar, Hirnyk, Selydove, and Kurakhove in Donetsk Oblast after 2022;
Belligerents
Russia Donetsk People's Republic; Luhansk People's Republic;	Ukraine
Commanders and leaders
Vladimir Putin	Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Strength
38,000+ soldiers (late March 2022); 50,000–62,000 soldiers (early April 2022); 10,000–20,000 mercenaries (per European officials, early April 2022); 300–500 Syrian and Libyan mercenaries (per ISW, early April 2022); 180,000 soldiers (per Ukraine, July 2023)	125,000 soldiers (in eastern Ukraine); 40,000–50,000 (as of the start of the battle of Donbas)

Ukraine's easternmost oblasts, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv, have been the site of an ongoing theatre of operation since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The battle of Donbas was a major offensive in the eastern theatre that took place in mid-2022. By the culmination of the offensive in July 2022, Russian forces and their separatist allies had captured the cities of Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk, Rubizhne and Izium. However, in early September, Ukraine launched a major counteroffensive in the east, which recaptured the cities of Izium, Balakliia, Kupiansk, Sviatohirsk and the strategic city of Lyman. The counteroffensive stalled east of the Oskil river, and a campaign in eastern Kharkiv Oblast and western Luhansk Oblast has continued since, though Donetsk Oblast has remained the most active area of the frontline.

In the winter of 2022–2023, Russia focused on capturing the city of Bakhmut, largely destroying the city in one of the bloodiest battles of the war, and fully capturing it in May 2023. In June 2023, Ukraine launched another major counteroffensive across the entire frontline, capturing some Russian positions along Bakhmut's outskirts and in southwestern Donetsk Oblast, though not making the major gains in the Donbas which had been sought. By November 2023, this counteroffensive had largely stalled in the east and Russia began making new offensive operations to capture territory, gaining control of Avdiivka and Marinka in Donetsk Oblast by February 2024.

Following the capture of Avdiivka, Russian forces advanced to form a salient northwest of it and captured the settlement of Ocheretyne in April 2024 and began contesting Krasnohorivka, southwest of Donetsk, and Chasiv Yar, west of Bakhmut, and launched an offensive towards the city of Toretsk in June 2024. In late July 2024, Russia increased offensive maneuvers in the direction of the strategically important city of Pokrovsk, advancing significantly towards the city in August 2024.