MORE: The Russian efforts in the Siversk direction have been extremely lengthy, especially given that Siversk has an area of about 10 square kilometers with a pre-war population of about 11,000. Russian forces took 41 months to advance roughly 12 kilometers from Lysychansk (east of Siversk) to the western administrative boundary of Siversk.
Ukrainian resistance significantly delayed Russian efforts on the approaches to Siversk: ISW assesses that Russian forces seized Verkhnokamyanske (about four kilometers east of Siversk) as of October 9, 2024, Bilohorivka (about 10 kilometers northeast of Siversk) as of February 23, 2025, and Serebryanka (about four kilometers northeast of Siversk) as of August 16, 2025.
ISW first observed evidence that Russian forces entered Siversk’s town limits no later than November 18, indicating that Russian forces likely took 33 days to completely seize the town (with an area of three Central Parks) once entering it.
Russian forces must still advance the 30 kilometers from Siversk to Slovyansk and complete the seizure of Lyman before they can begin a direct assault on Slovyansk itself.
The Kremlin has been exaggerating the immediate implications of the seizure of Siversk in attempts to falsely portray Russian forces as imminently threatening the northern part of the Fortress Belt and making significant simultaneous advances across the theater, such that the frontline is imminently collapsing. Russian gains continue to be slow and grinding as they have been for the past two years.
— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) Dec 22, 2025
The post MORE: The Russian efforts in the Siversk direction have been extremely lengthy, especially given that Siversk has an area of about 10 square kilometers with a pre-war population of about 11,000. Russian forces took 41 months to advance roughly 12 kilometers from Lysychansk (east of Siversk) to the western administrative boundary of Siversk. Ukrainian resistance significantly delayed Russian efforts on the approaches to Siversk: ISW assesses that Russian forces seized Verkhnokamyanske (about four kilometers east of Siversk) as of October 9, 2024, Bilohorivka (about 10 kilometers northeast of Siversk) as of February 23, 2025, and Serebryanka (about four kilometers northeast of Siversk) as of A first appeared on October Surprise 2016 – octobersurprise2016.org.
