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Russia’s military recorded no territorial positive factors on the entrance line in Ukraine in March for the primary time in two and half years, AFP evaluation of information from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) confirmed.

Ukrainian forces managed to recapture 9 sq. kilometres in March as Moscow’s forces slowed down throughout the whole entrance line, in accordance with the evaluation. This determine excludes infiltration operations performed by Russian forces past the entrance line, in addition to advances claimed by the Russian facet however neither confirmed nor denied by the ISW.

The ISW labored with the Critical Threats Project (a part of the American Enterprise Institute, or AEI), one other US think-tank specialising in battle. The Russian military has been slowing its advance since late 2025 as a consequence of counter-offensives within the southeast of the nation, with 319 sq. kilometres of positive factors in January and 123 sq. kilometres in February, the smallest advances since April 2024.

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The ISW attributed the slowdown of the Russian military in latest months to Ukrainian counter-offensives, but in addition to “Russia’s ban on using Starlink terminals in Ukraine” and “the Kremlin’s efforts to restrict access to Telegram”.

The messaging app, extremely popular amongst Russians together with these combating on the entrance line, has been barely usable in latest months as a consequence of blocks imposed by the authorities.

As in February, Russia has misplaced floor on the southern part of the entrance line, between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk areas, the place it occupied greater than 400 sq. kilometres on the finish of January. This space shrank to 200 sq. kilometres in February and to 144 sq. kilometres in March. The scenario was, nonetheless, unfavourable for Kyiv additional north within the Donetsk area, in the direction of the 2 main regional cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

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In 2025, the Russian military made extra progress in Ukraine than within the previous 24 months. But within the first three months of 2026, Russian territorial positive factors had been half these of the identical interval in 2025.

Four years after the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow occupies simply over 19 p.c of the nation, nearly all of which was seized throughout the first weeks of the battle.

Approximately seven p.c, together with Crimea and areas within the Donbas area, was already below Russian or pro-Russian separatist management earlier than the invasion.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)