The settlement of Bilohorivka in Luhansk Oblast was one of the places where Russian forces tried unsuccessfully to cross the Siverskyi Donets,[18] becoming a hot spot of fighting in early May 2022.

If Ukraine recaptures Kreminna and nearby Svatove, it could enable Ukrainian forces to launch a campaign to retake the key industrial cities Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, which it previously lost in summer 2022.

[23] On 20 September 2022, Luhansk Oblast governor Serhiy Haidai reported that Russian troops had "razed [Bilohorivka] to the ground" during their failed attempts to recapture it, stating that Ukrainian forces had full control of the town.

[25] Surviving troops from the BARS-13 detachment and 20th Guards Combined Arms Army, previously based in Lyman where they sustained heavy casualties during the battle for the town, reestablished themselves in Kreminna.

To counter Ukrainian advances, Russian forces had mined all access roads to Kreminna and Svatove, according to Luhansk Regional Military Administration head Serhiy Haidai.

[citation needed] On the night of 2 November, Ukrainian sources claimed to have destroyed an entire Russian battalion near the town of Makiivka, in Svatove Raion.

[45][46] In early December, Ukrainian forces broke through Russian lines around Chervonopopivka, with fighting mostly centered west of the R-66 highway connecting Kreminna and Svatove.

[53][54] In early February 2023, Russian troops increased the number of attacks in the Bilohorivka and Kreminna areas, to identify weak points in the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

[59] On the night between 26 and 27 January 2023, Russian forces reportedly began preparing for a new offensive west of Kreminna, launching small ground attacks near Dibrova.

[60] Clashes broke out along the front line, with Russian forces conducting attacks towards Ukrainian positions in Chervonopopivka, Ploshchanka, Nevske, and west of Kreminna.

"[64] A main goal of the Russian offensive is to push Ukraine back over the Oskil River which runs through Kupiansk, as well as to make a "buffer zone" for the Luhansk region.

[63][66] Leonid Pasechnik, president of the Russia-controlled Luhansk People's Republic, claimed Ukraine was bringing reinforcements to the area, making the situation "very difficult".

[79] On 14 June, a large concentration of Russian troops from the 20th Army were awaiting a speech from Major General Sukhrab Akhmedov behind the front line in Luhansk Oblast when the gathering was attacked by Ukrainian M142 HIMARS strikes.

[82] By 11 July, geolocated footage indicated that Russian forces had entered eastern parts of the village of Torske 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) west of Kreminna.

[84] On 16 July, it was reported by Russian sources that Major General Ramil Ibatullin, commander of the 90th Tank Division, was arrested for failing to make significant advances on the Luhansk front.

[86] Russian forces also tried to carry out a second successful landing across the Oskil River near Masiutivka, taking new positions with the aim of completely breaking the strong Ukrainian defense line.

[92] On 10 August, Ukraine ordered a mandatory evacuation of 12,000 civilians from Kupiansk district, citing "the difficult security situation and the increasing amount of shelling by Russian terrorist forces."

The next day, they also claimed that Russian forces were moving southwest towards Pishchane [uk], advanced in Berestove, further south, and possibly captured Kotliarivka, immediately northeast.

[114][dead link‍] On 18 June, DeepState analysts report that the Russians have amassed up to 10,000 troops and 450 pieces of military equipment, including 200 artillery systems, attempting to take Borova.

[124] At the end of November, a Ukrainian official confirmed that Russian forces recently crossed to the western bank of the Oskil River near the suspension bridge south of Novomlynsk.

[192] In November 2023, the fighting reportedly escalated, with the Ukrainians claiming that the Russians lost 11,000 men killed during just the past month, with 1,100 pieces of equipment destroyed, including 130 tanks, 208 IFVs and 260 artillery systems and mortars.

[197] By 27 December, the Ukrainians again claimed heavy losses for their enemy, with Russia allegedly suffering more than 3,000 casualties, including over a thousand dead, during just the past week.

[198] On 20 January 2024, the Ukrainians claimed to have killed or wounded 7,055 to 7,500 Russian soldiers since the beginning of the year (compared with 14,000 losses in December 2023), and to have destroyed 931 pieces of equipment, including 120 tanks, 218 armored vehicles and 178 artillery systems and mortars within the same period.

[199][200] On 15 February 2024, Ukrainian forces claimed to have destroyed a battalion-sized Russian assault group from the 3rd Army Corps near the village of Terny, with the loss of four T-90M and two T-80 tanks, plus four IFVs and a TOS-1 thermobaric rocket-launcher.

[201] On 7 March 2024, the Ukrainians published an intercepted phone call from a Russian soldier, who claimed that the Kremlin was sending prisoners and the disabled to fight, and that 600 of them had been killed in "one-and-a-half months of the assault".

[206] On 25 November 2024, Major Anastasiya Bobovnikova, spokesperson for Ukraine's Luhansk Group of Forces, claimed that Russia suffered 15,000 losses ("roughly 1.5 divisions' worth of infantry") in the Siversk direction during an unspecified timeframe.

Independent news site Astra reported on 18 November that these losses were from the 3rd Combined Arms Army, and had lost 1,410 men assaulting Bilohorivka over the course of ten days.

They also claimed that the commander of the 123rd Motorized Rifle Brigade was removed following an assault where 200 infantrymen had gone missing and 100 tank crewmen had been killed or wounded on 2 November.

[210] On 14 December 2024, elements of three Ukrainian brigades repulsed a battalion-sized Russian assault on Siversk, who claimed to destroyed 15 armored vehicles and tanks, 40 motorcycles and to have killed or injured 400 personnel.

[212] On 7 January 2025, a Ukrainian battalion commander claimed that Russian forces lost almost 100 armored vehicles and suffered "significant casualties" during recent attempts to enter Kruhlyakivka (northeast of Borova).