Russian forces have not succeeded in crossing into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine's military said on July 2, refuting another Russian claim of a breakthrough into the central-eastern region.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine dismissed Russian claims of territorial gains as disinformation and said a recent small incursion was repelled.

According to the statement, a small Russian reconnaissance group managed to briefly enter the village of Dachne, located on the edge of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The group reportedly took photos with a Russian flag, but Ukrainian forces "eliminated them."

Russian troops have intensified efforts to breach the administrative border between Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts in eastern Ukraine, but have failed to gain ground despite repeated assaults, the military said.

"(Russian troops) have had no success in achieving this demonstrative goal, no matter how many 'meat wave assaults' they launch with small infantry units and sabotage-reconnaissance groups," the General Staff said in a statement.

Donetsk Oblast, which has been a focal point of Russia's invasion since 2014 and a major battleground since the full-scale invasion in 2022, borders the more centrally located Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Russian forces have not entered Dnipropetrovsk Oblast territory in force, although they regularly strike the region with missiles, drones, and aerial bombs.

In a separate incident, two Russian soldiers were captured during a subsequent assault on Dachne and are now in Ukrainian custody, the military said. They were detained by a unit of Ukrainian Marines and added to "Ukraine's prisoner exchange pool."

"Therefore, the Russian propaganda about the seizure of the bridgehead in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast is not true. Dachne remains under the control of the Ukrainian Defense Forces," the statement read.

The new claims echo a similar incident in May when Russian sources circulated a photo purporting to show Russian troops at the border of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast near the village of Novomykolaivka.

At the time, Ukrainian officials, including Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Serhii Lysak, dismissed the photo as fake. The monitoring group DeepState later confirmed that the image had been taken in the village of Troitske in Donetsk Oblast and featured a Ukrainian vehicle abandoned under fire, which Russian forces later used for staged photos.

Russian forces have recently stepped up offensive operations across multiple sectors of the front line. Viktor Tregubov, spokesperson for Ukraine's Khortytsia group of forces, said on June 16 that Moscow had increased attacks in the Novopavlivka sector.

Tregubov noted that the escalation near Novopavlivka indicates an effort to breach into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. "But they have failed to succeed," he said in a televised address.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state-controlled media on June 9 that Russian forces were conducting operations in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast as part of efforts to create a so-called "buffer zone" on Ukrainian territory.

These remarks followed Russian President Vladimir Putin's May 22 statement that Russia was working to establish a "security buffer zone" along the Ukrainian border regions of Kursk, Bryansk, and Belgorod.

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Russian forces likely executed another Ukrainian prisoner of war (POW), Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on July 1, referring to a recent video that appears to show the captive tied to a motorcycle and dragged along a road.

The alleged execution adds to growing evidence that Russian forces are systematically violating the Geneva Conventions by killing Ukrainian captives.

"A video is circulating on social media showing a man being tied to a motorcycle and dragged along the road," Lubinets said in a statement.

"It is a clear act of demonstrative cruelty and yet another war crime by the Russian Federation."

Lubinets said he has sent official letters regarding the suspected war crime to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"Russia is acting as a terrorist state. And it must be held fairly accountable for every crime," he added.

Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) alone reported in May that it had documented more than 150 cases of Ukrainian soldiers being executed after surrendering to Russian forces. Officials noted that these were only the confirmed incidents, and the real number is likely higher.

HUR and other agencies say such executions are not isolated but part of a broader, deliberate policy directed by Russia's military leadership. Multiple intelligence reports suggest that Russian soldiers have received explicit orders to kill prisoners of war.

The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine confirmed in March growing numbers of incidents in which Russian forces killed or maimed surrendering Ukrainian troops.

The commission cited testimony from Russian deserters who said they were instructed not to take prisoners but to shoot them on sight.

Earlier this year, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported a sharp increase in POW executions, documenting 79 killings across 24 incidents since August 2024. In many cases, the victims were unarmed or wounded, and some were killed in groups.

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