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Evidence that Russia is not doing well in its war in Ukraine, both militarily and economically, has been mounting for the past week.
The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has confirmed previous assessments that Russia has lost control over Ukraine.
“Ukraine regained nearly 400 square kilometers in and around Dnipropetrovsk – more territory than at any time since the end of 2022 – during the quarter,” a report to Congress revealed on May 18.
Russia has still made gains in 2026, but its progress is slowing, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank.
ISW found that Russia netted 104 sq km (40 sq miles) between January 1 and May 26, 2026, compared to its seizure of 1,619 sq km (625 sq miles) in the same period last year.
He said Russian troops entered and contested 628 sq km (242.5 sq miles), but did not take control.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian casualties had risen to 145,000 this year, with 86,000 killed and 59,000 soldiers seriously injured.
Ukraine says it has released a video of the confirmed killings.
Al Jazeera cannot confirm the claims of casualties on either side.
The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, said that it means a loss of 179 Russians per kilometer in advance, compared to 67 last year.
This is much higher than Ukraine’s assessment of Russia’s ability to substitute for employment.
The Russian war is also becoming more difficult to finance. Having exceeded its current account deficit in April 2026, depleting its foreign reserves, Russia has been reducing its gold reserves at an unprecedented rate.
According to his Central BankRussia has sold 27.9 tonnes of its gold reserves this year, worth more than $4bn. This leaves Russia’s gold reserves at their lowest level since the start of a full-scale attack in February 2022.
Russian and Ukrainian space systems
The DIA also said that Ukraine’s clawback of 400 sq km (154.5 sq miles) of its territory in Russia is failing to access Starlink satellite services used for monitoring and battery burning.
Ukraine claims its success is due to its strategy of interdiction of Russian airspace through medium-range drone and missile systems.
Fedorov said that Ukraine is slowing down the route through a program called Logistical Lockdown, “increasing the central threat and systematically destroying Russia’s capabilities in deep operations”.
Ukraine says this strategy has prevented the reinforcement of men and equipment from reaching the frontline, and has reduced Russia’s superiority in material depth and mass.
On May 21, the governor of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, banned traffic on the M-14 highway connecting Mariupol, Berdyansk and Melitopol, due to the number of vehicles that were hit there.
Ukraine was strengthened in its efforts to stop the Russian bombings, which have destroyed the frontline. Russia launches about 3,000 of them a week, and retrofits them with steering systems and fins to allow them to travel up to 100km. This has allowed Russian jets to fly them to clear areas far away from Ukrainian anti-aircraft weapons.
On May 28, Sweden announced that it will supply 16 Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine, which will also buy another 20 through the EU’s Ukraine Support Loan at a cost of $2.9bn.
“We have never had enough air defense equipment to drop such bombs,” Zelenskyy said. “Therefore, the Gripen fighters with the right weapons, especially the Meteor missiles, which destroy the target area at a distance of more than 200 kilometers, will help us push back the Russian planes.”
Separately, Ukraine continued its long-running assault on Russia’s oil economy, which supports the war.
On May 23 Ukraine hit an oil storage facility and unloaded it in Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, causing a fire and hitting a Russian submarine.
The next day Ukraine attacked the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal, also on the Black Sea.
In addition, military and industrial facilities were destroyed, including the Metafrax Chemicals plant in Perm, 1,700 kilometers inside Russia, and the Taganrog Airbase in Rostov, which caused a fire at the aircraft repair facility.
Russia conquered Kyiv
Russia pursued its own space strategy affect Kyiv through a large-scale combined attack of drones and missiles, which can defeat the defense of Ukraine.
On May 24, Russia launched 600 long-range drones and 90 missiles against Kyiv and surrounding areas, including 36 ballistic missiles. Ukraine managed to shoot down 91 percent of drones and 81 percent of surface-to-air missiles, while 19 missiles may have missed their targets. What achieved their goals was the destruction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the building of the Cabinet of Ministers, as well as two museums and a food market.
At least 87 people were injured, Zelenskyy said, and two were confirmed dead.
Russia organized the protests as retaliation for what it said was a boycott of a college in Luhansk that was seized two days earlier. Russian President Vladimir Putin explained that “terrorists threatened the dormitory of the students of Starobilsk pedagogical College”, and said that they killed six students and injured 39.
The Ukrainian General Staff said it was a strike between Advanced Unmanned Technologies operated by Rubikon, Russia’s unmanned aerial vehicle.
Russia has acknowledged strikes on towns in the past as attacks on military checkpoints. On May 25, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, that Russia would begin striking “military positions” in Kyiv in retaliation for Starobilsk.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia described the campaign as “a series of counter-attacks against the Ukrainian armed forces in Kyiv,” and said that the foreign public will be looking at “the real areas of design, production, preparation, and preparation for the use of drones used by the government of Kyiv with the help of NATO experts who are responsible for supplying components, providing intelligence and guidance.”
Russia said that “decision-making centers and command centers” were also monitored, and warned foreign citizens, including ambassadors, to leave.
Moscow also claimed that one of the weapons used in the attack on Kyiv on May 24 was the latest, Oreshnik middle-class madness, which also put forward in Belarus.
