Ukraine’s top commander says his forces have regained more than 230 square miles of territory this year. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi posted the figure on Telegram on June 8 and added that the army took back almost 40 square miles in May alone. In square kilometers, he put the total at over 600, with Ukraine gaining nearly 100 more than it lost along the front line in May.
Few would have predicted it earlier this year. Peace talks led by the United States had stalled, the Trump administration was easing its support, and a winter of Russian strikes had battered Ukraine’s energy and critical infrastructure. Then, on May 19, President Volodymyr Zelensky said his troops were “holding more positions and inflicting more damage.”
Newsweek traced the turn to drones. Ukraine’s defense ministry says production of reconnaissance, mid-strike and deep-strike systems, along with fiber-optic FPV drones, has risen sharply over the past year. “Over the last six months Ukraine has demonstrated that it has the initiative in drones,” said Matthew Arnold of the LSE IDEAS think tank in London.
Numbers from both sides
The Institute for the Study of War counts Russian gains at 40 square miles this year, against 625 square miles over the same stretch last year. The think tank said Kyiv has re-secured an overall drone advantage, and that this, with some return of tactical mechanized maneuver, “may mark the beginning of a new phase of the war.”
Zelensky said Ukrainian “middle strikes” on Russian air defenses and logistics up to 120 miles behind the front line have quadrupled since February. Farther back, drones have reached export terminals on the Gulf of Finland and inland refineries. Ukrainian forces hit the Tuapse refinery in Krasnodar for the fifth time this spring, and overnight Thursday struck an oil facility in Volgograd. A May 18 drone strike on Moscow targeted Sheremetyevo Airport, the Moscow Oil Refinery, a petroleum pumping station and two firms making electronics for the Russian military.
Giorgi Revishvili, who runs the Russia Analyzed Substack, said Kyiv has stepped up mid-range strikes on Russian logistics at depths of 18 to 65 miles. “Now, Ukrainian forces are targeting Russian supply lines there almost daily, and even pro-war Russian military bloggers are sounding the alarm,” he said.
Gen. Andriy Biletskyi, commander of the 3rd Army Corps, told Reuters that Russia’s army is exhausted and cannot make major breakthroughs. His troops are holding the flank around Sloviansk, he said, so Moscow must attack the city head-on at heavy cost in troops and commanders. The next six months, he added, “are the most critical.”
Where it is still hard
Revishvili warned that some sectors remain tough. Around Kostiantynivka, Russian units are infiltrating in small groups while shelling the city heavily. And whether Ukraine can exploit any gaps, he said, depends partly on its manpower shortages.
Moscow is not conceding. The Financial Times, citing unnamed sources, reported that Putin still believes his forces can take all of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts by autumn.
Sources
- Ukraine has gained the upper hand over Russia
- Ukraine Recaptures More than 600 Square Km of Territory in 2026, Military Chief Says
