Ukraine Slows Russia on the Front While Expanding Strikes on Russian Territory

Ukraine has slowed Russian troops on the front in 2026 while expanding its ability to strike Russian territory, with Kaja Kallas telling EL PAÍS on May 11 that “Many allies see what is happening and how the situation on the battlefield has changed.”

EL PAÍS says Ukrainian forces regained territory for the first time in two years since the summer of 2024, with “116 square kilometers liberated in April,” and it attributes the change to a progressive reduction of the Russian advance in 2026.

Al Jazeera

The paper reports that if the invader gained 519 square kilometers in December, it gained 319 in January, 123 in February, and only 23 square kilometers in March, while the retreat is said to occur mainly in the provinces of Zaporiyia and Járkov.

EL PAÍS adds that where little has changed is Donetsk, occupied about 75% roughly, and it frames Donetsk and Lugansk as Donbás, the territory Vladímir Putin wants to conquer as a precondition to negotiating peace.

On the strike side, EL PAÍS says the latest major Ukrainian long-range bombardment hit the Moscow region on Saturday, in which three people died, while two days earlier a Russian missile killed 24 civilians in Kiev.

Despite the battlefield slowdown, EL PAÍS reports that military officers and analysts it consulted urge caution because the Armed Forces of Ukraine “do not today have the resources to turn the war around.”

EL PAÍS says the main difference on the ground is that the supply of drones, especially long- and medium-range ones, has multiplied, and it states that Ukraine has reached in 2026 the level of Russia in the number of drones used in long-range attacks, with “more than 7,000 per month for each side.”

Associated Press

The paper also links the drone shift to targeting and logistics, saying both armies mainly seek to destroy centers of military production and the enemy’s energy infrastructure, and it reports that Russian drones damaged three merchant ships in Ukrainian waters off the Odesa region in the Black Sea.

EL PAÍS quotes Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Serhii Boiev as saying in January that the government estimates Ukraine’s military industry will manufacture 7 million drones in 2026, most of them short-range bombs.

In the same reporting, EL PAÍS describes a commander of a drone unit of Ukraine’s 3rd Corps, Maksim, explaining that on the Kharkiv front the Russians have had to withdraw their main logistic centers from neighboring Lugansk and relocate them to Russia, and it adds that Maksim says Ukraine has a target within reach at a distance of 100 kilometers.

Beyond the front, France 24 reports that the Kremlin moved to control digital communications by slowing Telegram, saying Russian authorities restricted access to the popular messaging service starting on Tuesday, February 10.

France 24 quotes researcher Kseniia Ermoshina, explaining that “everything takes longer, especially when they send videos, photos, or listen to music,” as Telegram operates at a crawl rather than being unavailable.

The same article says Roskomnadzor acknowledged restricting Telegram’s activity because the platform did not comply with Russian laws and did too little to fight fraud, while it also notes the regulator did not specify the nature of the legal breaches or what frauds were involved.

On diplomacy and sanctions, TV5MONDE describes peace talks with Ukraine moving “at a snail's pace,” while it says the United States authorized the sale of Russian oil loaded on ships through April 11 and that Zelensky said on a visit to Paris that “the lifting of the sanctions will lead to (…) a strengthening of Russia's position.”

TV5MONDE adds that French President Emmanuel Macron said “this unilateral easing by the United States could bring Russia about 10 billion dollars for the war,” and it frames the dispute as part of how the Middle East conflict and U.S. decisions intersect with the Ukraine war and negotiations.