Russia loses ground – but not the war – in Ukraine
Key takeaways
- Moscow lost territory on the battlefield in April 2026 for the first time since Ukraine’s bold August 2024 incursion into Russia's Kursk oblast, according to an analysis published this week.
- By: Sébastian SEIBT Soldiers from Ukraine's 65th Mechanised Brigade train in the Zaporizhzhia region.
- The Russian advance has been slowing significantly since November 2025, according to the report, and is sluggish overall in 2026 compared to this time last year.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Moscow lost territory on the battlefield in April 2026 for the first time since Ukraine’s bold August 2024 incursion into Russia's Kursk oblast, according to an analysis published this week. Moscow's losses were equivalent to some 116 square kilometres across several areas of the front line.
By: Sébastian SEIBT Soldiers from Ukraine's 65th Mechanised Brigade train in the Zaporizhzhia region. © Andriy Andriyenko, AP Russia lost territory in Ukraine in April for the first time since 2024, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) published May 2.
Ukraine gained some 116 square kilometres (45 square miles) along several areas of the front, including in the Sumy region north of Kharkiv but also further south in Zaporizhzhia province, says Huseyn Aliyev, a specialist on the war in Ukraine at the University of Glasgow.