Ukraine is regaining territory because it is increasing the invasion of Russia | Story

Ukraine said it regained more of its oil than it lost in May, reimbursing Russia’s monthly gains.

“The total number of liberated and lost areas is about 100 square kilometers (40 square kilometers) in our territory,” Ukrainian military chief Oleksandr Syrskii wrote on his Telegram channel.

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Ukrainian defense news outlet Militarnyi says it will get a slightly higher profit, at 120 sq km (46 sq miles), citing military content. Militarnyi said Russia captured 130 sq km (50 sq miles) and lost 250 sq km (100 sq miles) per month.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank that uses open geolocated data, measured the Ukrainian gains, saying that Russia captured or entered 40 sq km (15 sq miles) in May but lost about 280 sq km (108 sq miles).

ISW believed that Ukraine reversed Russia’s gains in April, when it estimated Moscow’s gains at 28 sq km (11 sq miles) in Ukraine and losses of 116 sq km (45 sq miles).

ISW’s analysis shows that Ukraine’s profits are growing.

Syrskii said Ukraine reclaimed 600 sq km (230 sq miles) in the first five months of 2026.

However, Russia was successful in one aspect of the war

The commander of the Ukrainian army, Kostyantyn Mashovets, said on June 10 that Russian troops entered the eastern part of Konstiantynivka, south of the “strongest wall” of the four cities east of Donetsk. Russian troops began entering the city’s territory last October, and now hold about 13 percent, ISW said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has prioritized the capture of the unoccupied fifth of Donetsk, but his deadlines to achieve this have been missed several times.

Putin may be airing ideas on the ceasefire talks. Although on June 5 he rejected Zelenskyy’s call for direct talks, Zelenskyy said he had met with the Russian oligarch. Roman Abramovich who acted as Putin’s mediator.

A central attack destroys Russian weapons

Ukraine has attributed its success on the battlefield to a strategy of disrupting Russian supply lines by striking oil and weapons depots and crossings.

“The lockdown is working,” said Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. “The number of attacks on the enemy within 50km (30 miles) from (the front) has doubled,” he said, comparing May to April.

Syrskii put May’s target at about 2,000.

The results of the Ukrainian approach are beginning to grow.

The attacks in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia reduced the number of Russian troops by 70 percent along the M-14 highway, the main east-west route, said Robert Brovdi, head of the Ukrainian military’s Unmanned Systems Forces.

On June 7, authorities banned traffic on the M-14 highway, Brovdi said.

This forced the Russian planners to send a lot of goods on two main roads that reach Kherson and Zaporizhia, through Crimea – E105 and E97.

The next day, Ukraine hit the bridge that crosses the E105 over the Chonhar Strait, leaving only the E97. On June 9, when 50 Russian vehicles and equipment were sent to E97, Ukrainian soldiers hid and destroyed some of them in Armyansk, army chief Dmitry Filatov told Suspilne Radio.

“This operation would not have been possible if some units had not attacked Mariupol and the road to Berdyansk,” said Filatov, referring to land routes. “This is what made it possible for the units that stood in Hulyaipil to be delivered, not through the highways of Mariupol, but through the Crimea.”

Civilians in Crimea have been facing fuel shortages as a result of the protests in Ukraine, and this has worsened over the past week.

On June 7, the governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev distributed 20 liters of fuel per car per day. Then he changed it to 20 liters a week.

The shortage is said to have led to the withdrawal of troops from some remote areas.

The Ukrainian underground group Ateshwhich operates in the Crimea, reported that Russian forces are abandoning their positions on the Kinburn Spit because they are running out of food and fuel.

“We will create conditions that will make it very difficult for soldiers and security personnel to remain in Crimea, in temporarily occupied territories, or to use the means of passage,” Brovdi told Reuters.

Although the Russian military continues to control the airspace over eastern Ukraine and drop large-scale weapons there, Ukrainian statistics show that its drone is the most effective weapon.

Ukraine’s short- and medium-range drones hit 180,000 targets in May, Syrskii said, 12.7 percent more than in April.

Ukrainian defense forces are also said to be becoming more adept at shooting down Russian Shahed drones with their own stealth drones. Although Russia executed 25 more Shaheds in May compared to April, the number of executions increased by 50 percent to almost 4,000, Fedorov said.

Fedorov expecting a slight change in Shahed’s removal once the new generation of interceptors begins to produce everything that “makes up 95 percent of the total interceptor”.

In addition to these central strikes, Ukraine has continued a successful campaign that has destroyed Russian oil refineries, storage facilities and offloading facilities, reducing Russian oil production and export revenues.

Recruitment in Russia is low

Aware of the Ukraine drone threat, Russia has developed its own unmanned aerial units but appears to be struggling to control them.

Since the beginning of the year, 14,500 people have signed contracts to work in these sectors, about 21 percent of the annual recruitment goal, Syrskii said. Overall, Ukraine has killed or wounded 12,500 more soldiers than Russia has this year, he said.

That’s because casualty numbers have been rising since last fall there — Ukraine says 31,500 Russians were injured in May — and because recruitment in Moscow has dropped, even as bonuses are increasing for enlistment.

Russian critic Vazhnye Istorii said 71,200 people were paid registration bonuses in the first quarter of 2026 according to the budget, compared to about 90,000 in the first quarter of 2025.

It is estimated that recruitment in 2025 was already 10 percent lower than in 2024.