Report – Ukraine Army in March Recaptured More Ground From Russia Than It Lost
The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in March liberated a bit more territory held by enemy forces than it lost to Russia, according to compiled data made public by the AFU on Wednesday and reviewed independently. Ukrainian troops in March in battles across the Russo-Ukraine War’s 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) fighting front scored a net gain of 27 square kilometers (10.4 square miles) more ground recaptured from Russian forces, for the first time since at least October, a March 31 review published by the Washington D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War said. The finding tallied with Kyiv Post research during the month.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The finding that Ukraine has actually shifted combat dynamics to the point where its forces have the initiative and are making net ground gains against Russia was noted by Ukraine’s army commander General Oleksandr Syrsky in comments to ICTV television on Tuesday. In an hour-long interview, Syrsky said that since late January, his troops have been advancing slowly but continuously, with local counterattacks in the southern Olesandrivka-Zaporizhzhia sectors scoring the biggest successes. “Success lies precisely in the liberation of territory. As of today, this amounts to 480 square kilometers [185 square miles] liberated since January. This exceeds the results we achieved during the Dobropillia counteroffensive operation [in 2025],” Syrsky said in part. March 2026 is the second month in a row that Russia has lost more territory than it has gained in Ukraine, which the Kremlin invaded in February 2026. Currently, Russia occupies about 20% of Ukrainian sovereign territory. The last time Ukraine forces managed two months of net ground gains subsequently was in July and August 2025, when Ukraine invaded Russia and temporarily occupied about 1,300 square kilometers (502 square miles) – a land space about the size of Rome, Italy, or San Antonio in the US – of Russia’s western Kursk region. Currently, Ukrainian forces are counterattacking primarily to prevent Russian forces from taking the initiative and executing concentrated offensives themselves, and to inflict losses to wear the enemy down, Syrsky said: “Our goal for this year is, of course, to conduct a strategic defensive operation aimed at containing the enemy, preventing the loss of territory, exhausting their forces and means, creating conditions for large-scale offensive operations, building up our reserves, providing high-quality training for servicemen, and at the same time conducting counteroffensive actions in those directions where the enemy is weak. The purpose is once again to liberate territory and, most importantly, to maintain operational and strategic initiative,” he said. The more conservative, Ukraine-based DeepState research group, in its review of movement of battle lines over March, and published on April 1, calculated Russian forces over the past month had captured 160 square kilometers (62 square miles) more than they had lost, but cautioned readers that some Russian advances spotted were not confirmed gains and possibly were temporary. There was no immediate direct reaction by the Kremlin to Syrsky’s and Ukrainian claims that Russia is – marginally – losing ground in Ukraine. Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s official spokesman, in comments to Moscow reporters on Wednesday, claimed Ukrainian forces were losing the war and badly wanted a truce because “the dynamics on the front are not in Ukraine’s favor” and that “Russian forces are advancing along the entire front line.” Reports from the field generally matched a picture of a generally static front, but with sometimes violent small-scale Ukrainian advances and flashes of intense fighting in the southern sectors – sharply contradicting Peskov’s claim of Kremlin forces gaining ground across the front. One of the better-documented recent engagements was a local attack by the 425th Assault Regiment “Skelya,” a spearhead formation that has been at the forefront of Syrsky’s counterattacks. In a March 31 battle documented by video and two Ukrainian sources, a 20-30 man attack element from the 425th used armored vehicles to assault Russian positions near the village of Hyrshyne, losing two men (killed), one tank and three lighter armored vehicles to Russian drones in the process. Serhiy Sternenko, a military affairs advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, criticized the action as too costly for ground gained. A statement published by the 425th Regiment said the operation was properly planned and executed, that the regiment’s aggressive tactics get results, and that that particular combat was continuing. Russian sources said the attack was repelled and published video of a US-made M1A1 tank knocked out by First Person View (FPV) drones. Over the past week, Russian sources reported Ukrainian attacks seemed concentrated in and around the battleground city of Pokrovsk and its neighboring villages – Hryshyne, Udachne and Rodynske – with 425th Regiment-led attacks hitting all those villages on March 26-31. Per reports from the 425th and 155th Mechanized Brigade, a supporting formation, the Ukrainian attacks captured ground in Udachne and Rodynske. In the southern Hulyaipole-Orikhiv sector, Russian attacks spiked on March 28 with Ukrainian forces holding recently captured ground. One Russian assault with a single tank, followed by two ATV/quad bikes and two motorcycles, approached positions held by 505/37 Marine Brigade near the village of Ivanivka, to the east of Huliaipole, and was repelled after striking minefields, being taken under artillery fire and then attacked by drones. Video published by 505th Battalion and its drone company geo-located to farm fields to the south of Ivanivka. In the Orikhiv sector, Russian forces launched a pair of mechanized assaults near the villages of Robotyne and Mala Tokmachka, with a 10-fighting vehicle column attacking at either location. According to unit reports and AFU statements, both attacks were repelled with losses. Video and comment by the 118th Mechanized Brigade, the Ukrainian formation holding Mala Tokmachka, documented a Russian “hedgehog” tank followed by an armored infantry fighting vehicle and two ATVs loaded with infantry approaching Ukrainian lines, and then destroyed by drones and artillery fire. The 118th claimed 10 Russian service personnel killed and another 10 seriously injured, but that was not independently confirmed. Robotyne and Mala Tokmachka were the scene of the last massed armored assaults attempted by the AFU since 2023, during which Ukrainian forces, in a long-predicted counteroffensive with hundreds of tanks and fighting vehicles, attacked Russian fortifications and were cut to pieces by Russian mines, anti-tank missiles, and artillery. Since then, the AFU has avoided substantial armored attacks almost completely, and even assaults with more than a single tank and one or two light armored vehicles are rare.
