'Wishful thinking, outright lies': Ukraine slams Russia’s war boasts, says Moscow's summer offensive achieved 'nothing'

Ukraine’s military said on 31 August that Russia’s 2025 spring, summer campaign had failed, despite Moscow’s repeated claims of battlefield progress. “After three and a half years of full-scale Kremlin aggression, yet another of its ‘seasonal’ offensives has ended in almost nothing,” the General Staff said in a post on Facebook, calling Moscow’s declarations “wishful thinking” and “outright lies.” The statement came a day after Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, claimed his forces held the upper hand and insisted the war would continue.

Heavy losses for Russian forces

Ukraine’s General Staff rejected Russian figures on captured territory, saying the only verifiable outcome for Moscow was its own mounting casualties. “The only 100% verified result achieved by Russia since the beginning of 2025 is its own losses, over 291,000 soldiers killed and wounded,” the statement read. It added that Russia had also lost 2,174 armoured fighting vehicles, 1,201 tanks, 7,303 artillery systems and 157 multiple launch rocket systems.

President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media that Russia’s heaviest defeats came in Donetsk Oblast, particularly around Pokrovsk, where Moscow had concentrated its main push. “They failed to achieve any of their strategic objectives,” he said.

No major cities captured

Kyiv noted that in 2025, Russia had not taken full control of any major Ukrainian city, despite months of offensives. Gerasimov, however, defended Moscow’s campaign, saying “targeted massive fire strikes continue,” in reference to Russia’s regular missile and drone attacks. He claimed they were aimed only at military facilities, though evidence shows civilian sites are often hit.

Strikes continue to kill civilians

On 28 August, a Russian strike on Kyiv killed 25 people, including four children aged 2, 14 and 17. More than 20 locations were damaged, among them a shopping centre, the British Council building, and the EU mission to Ukraine. Ukraine’s military said Moscow’s claims of “precision strikes” ring hollow.

“As for the aggressor state’s claims of ‘precision strikes only against military targets, ’ thousands of Ukrainian civilians know the real price of such boasts, losing their homes, relatives, and loved ones every day,” the General Staff said. It added, “Wherever a Russian ‘Iskander’ missile falls, a so-called ‘UAF command post’ or ‘foreign mercenary base’ is declared. The consequence of Russia’s constant violations of international humanitarian law is human lives.”