FLASH NEWS
Russia loses territory in Ukraine for the first time since 2023, Ukrainian forces gain hundreds of kilometers in Zaporizhia, Kharkiv and Donetsk
2026-05-04 23:47:29 / BOTA
The area controlled by Russia on Ukrainian territory fell by 120 square kilometers in April. Since the summer of 2023, this is the first time that Russia has lost territory after a large-scale counteroffensive by the Ukrainian army. The news is reported by Agence-France-Presse, which has analyzed developments on the front. After more than four years of full-scale war, fierce fighting continues unabated on the front lines, while difficult diplomatic negotiations have been suspended since the outbreak of war in the Middle East.
Moscow today proposed a short ceasefire for Russia's May 9 celebrations of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, while Kiev is calling for a longer ceasefire to facilitate negotiations, something the Kremlin denies.
The ISW report on Moscow’s withdrawal is not comprehensive: Russian troops remain in positions where they have penetrated three-quarters of the areas where Ukraine has regained territory. The Russian military is constantly sending small groups of soldiers to take up positions in sections of the front, which consists of areas of varying kilometers in width, constantly exposed to drone attacks, and hide there to facilitate the subsequent advance of the bulk of the troops.
These infiltration operations in areas that Russia does not fully control are not included in the estimates of territories held by each camp.
Kiev's gain is the continued slowdown of the Russian advance since December 2025, to the point where Moscow's forces had registered almost no progress on Ukrainian territory by March (23 km2).
"Ukrainian ground counterattacks and medium-range attacks, the exclusion of Russian forces from the use of Starlink terminals in Ukraine in February 2026, and the Kremlin's suppression of Telegram have exacerbated existing problems within the ranks of the Russian military ," the institute claims.
He also points to a possible influence of "seasonal trends" with the melting of ice that had formed on the ground and with spring rains "worsening conditions" for troop movements.
In April, without making much progress, the Ukrainian army managed to advance in various places along the front line: about 40 square kilometers in each of the three regions of Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, and Donetsk. Russia, however, occupied a few square kilometers east of Kramatorsk (Donetsk).
These estimates also exclude the progress that the Russian side claims to have made, which ISW neither confirms nor denies, working with the Critical Threats Project, a branch of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), another American think tank specializing in the study of conflicts.
Although Ukraine's gains in April are the first recorded in the last two and a half years, they remain minimal: 120 km² represent only 0.02% of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea and Donbas.
More than four years after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia holds just over 19% of the country, of which 7% is in Crimea and the regions of the Donbas industrial basin, which were already under Russian control or under the control of pro-Russian separatists before the February 2022 invasion. Most of the Russian advance in Ukraine was recorded in the first weeks of the conflict.
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