{"id":1394256,"date":"2026-05-17T21:56:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T18:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/russia-is-losing-ground-in-ukraine-for-the-first-time-since-2023-analysts-assess-the-situation-on-the-front\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T07:46:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T04:46:50","slug":"russia-is-losing-ground-in-ukraine-for-the-first-time-since-2023-analysts-assess-the-situation-on-the-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/russia-is-losing-ground-in-ukraine-for-the-first-time-since-2023-analysts-assess-the-situation-on-the-front\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysts: Russia\u2019s Advance Breaks \u2014 Ukraine Regains Initiative on the Front"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Russia Faces First Sustained Territorial Losses Since 2023 as Ukraine Regains Ground<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This is reported by The Economist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Journalists note that the course of the war in Ukraine is beginning to change after a long period of Russian aggression. According to the publication, Russian troops have seized about 220 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory since the beginning of 2026, which is only 0.04% of the country’s area.<\/p>\n

At the same time, according to analysts, the Ukrainian military has recently regained control of about 189 square kilometers of territory. The material notes that the 30-day moving average shows a steady recovery of the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

“Perhaps Russia is delaying its summer offensive. This could also be a turning point in the war,” the journalists noted.<\/p>\n

To analyze the situation, the publication used combat maps from the ISW think tank and its own military tracker, which assesses the intensity of fighting and losses on both sides.<\/p>\n

According to expert estimates, as of May 12, between 280,000 and 518,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the war against Ukraine. The total number of Russian casualties, including wounded, is between 1.1 and 1.5 million people.<\/p>\n

“About 3% of the male population of Russia of draft age before the war was killed or wounded,” the analysts emphasized.<\/p>\n

Separately, journalists drew attention to the changing situation in certain sections of the front, in particular in the Zaporizhzhia direction. According to CNN, the Ukrainian military is conducting successful counterattacks and restoring control over positions.<\/p>\n

Kirill Bondarenko, an officer in the Lazar’s Group strike drone unit of the National Guard of Ukraine, said that the Russian military on the front lines was exhausted.<\/p>\n

“We see and feel the mood changing among Russian troops on the front line,” Bondarenko said.<\/p>\n

ISW analysts also believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s negotiating strategy is weakening amid the changing situation on the front. According to Christina Harvard, deputy head of the ISW Russia group, the Kremlin has been building its position on the assumption that Russian military victories are inevitable.<\/p>\n

“Now life itself has refuted these theses,” Harvard said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrsky, announced the intensification of offensive actions by Russian troops<\/a> along virtually the entire front line. The tensest situation remains in the Pokrovsky direction, where the Russian Federation has concentrated about 106,000 personnel.<\/p>\n

The day before, Syrsky reported that Russia plans to significantly increase the production of FPV drones in 2026<\/a>, while simultaneously increasing units to combat Ukrainian drones. At the same time, the Ukrainian Defense Forces continue to maintain an advantage in FPV drone use and increase the effectiveness of strikes against the enemy.<\/p>\n

Also, follow \u201cPryamyi\u201d<\/strong> on Facebook<\/a>, X<\/a>, Telegram<\/a>, and Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia Faces First Sustained Territorial Losses Since 2023 as Ukraine Regains Ground This is reported by The Economist. Journalists note that the course of the war in Ukraine is beginning to change after a long period of Russian aggression. According to the publication, Russian troops have seized about 220 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":1338236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76874],"class_list":["post-1394256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1394256"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1394305,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394256\/revisions\/1394305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1338236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1394256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1394256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}