{"id":647360,"date":"2026-03-11T06:28:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T06:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/647360\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T06:28:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T06:28:20","slug":"ukraine-claims-battlefield-successes-as-russia-insists-on-invasion-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/647360\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine claims battlefield successes as Russia insists on invasion progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Russian and Ukrainian officials made rival claims of battlefield successes in their 4-year-old war, with Ukraine saying it pushed Moscow\u2019s forces back across places on the front line and the Kremlin insisting Russia\u2019s invasion of its neighbor<\/a> is making progress.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Russia\u2019s almost daily attacks on Ukrainian civilian areas continued, killing several people, as Washington postponed its sponsored talks between the two sides due to the war in the Middle East. <\/p>\n

Russia and Ukraine tout contradictory success claims <\/p>\n

Despite being short of soldiers, Ukrainian forces have recently retaken nearly all the territory of the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk industrial region during a counteroffensive, driving Russian troops out of more than 400 square kilometers (150 square miles), Maj. Gen. Oleksandr Komarenko said in an interview published Tuesday by local media outlet RBC-Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Russian troops are poorly supplied and lack support, Andrii Kyianenko, the deputy battalion commander of the 425th Separate Assault Regiment \u201cSkelia\u201d deployed in the area, told The Associated Press. Ukrainian soldiers have broken through Russian defenses and advanced more than 10 kilometers (6 miles), he said.<\/p>\n

The evolving military situation couldn\u2019t be independently verified, but the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, observed that recent Ukrainian counterattacks \u201care generating tactical, operational and strategic effects that may disrupt Russia\u2019s spring-summer 2026 offensive campaign plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Tuesday that Russian forces have extended their gains in Ukraine\u2019s eastern Donbas region, whose capture Moscow has made one of the goals of its invasion. Ukraine controlled about 25% of the Donbas six months ago, but it now holds just 15% to 17%, Putin said.<\/p>\n

He made the claim during a meeting with Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-appointed head of the parts of the Donbas controlled by Russian forces. It was not possible to verify the claim.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said that Putin told U.S. President Donald Trump late Monday that Russian forces are \u201cadvancing rather successfully\u201d in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

That progress should \u201cencourage\u201d Kyiv to \u201cmove toward a negotiated settlement of the conflict,\u201d Ushakov told reporters \u2014 even though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly demanded a lasting peace deal and European governments accuse Putin of feigning interest in talks while the Russian military keeps hammering Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Russia and Ukraine exchange strikes<\/p>\n

Three powerful glide bombs<\/a> struck the center of the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, killing four people, the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, Vadym Filashkin, said Tuesday. At least 16 other people, including a 14-year-old girl, were wounded.<\/p>\n

Overnight drone strikes on three other Ukrainian cities wounded at least 17 people, including two children, emergency services said Tuesday. Ukraine\u2019s air force said that it shot down 122 out of 137 drones that Russia launched during the night.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian missiles meanwhile struck the city of Bryansk in western Russia on Tuesday, killing at least six civilians and injuring 37, regional Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy told reporters that the Ukrainian military chief, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, reported to him that the strike on Bryansk hit a plant involved in manufacturing control systems for all types of Russian missiles. <\/p>\n

The Ukrainian military said it used British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles to hit the Kremniy El microchip factory in Bryansk, one of Russia\u2019s largest makers of microelectronics.<\/p>\n

US-brokered talks on hold due to war in the Middle East<\/p>\n

The next round of talks was set for Tuesday and Wednesday in Turkey, according to Zelenskyy, but American negotiators postponed it<\/a>, possibly until next week, he told reporters via WhatsApp messages.<\/p>\n

The Iran war<\/a>, which erupted on Feb. 28 following U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and spread across the region, has drawn the international spotlight from Ukraine\u2019s plight as it strives to hold back Russia\u2019s bigger army.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Zelenskyy urged Washington not to lift sanctions on Russia. The U.S. is reportedly considering easing sanctions on Moscow\u2019s oil sales in a bid to ease supply chain disruption and pressure on gas prices as the Middle East conflict continues. <\/p>\n

Such a move would help Moscow finance its invasion and would be \u201ca serious blow\u201d for Ukraine, Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin is hoping<\/a> that the Iran war will bring it a financial windfall from rising oil prices, distract global attention from the war in Ukraine, run down Western arsenals and force the U.S. and its NATO allies to reduce military support for Kyiv.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, is hoping that by supplying its cutting-edge and battle-tested drone technology<\/a> to the United States and its Gulf partners for the war in the Middle East, Ukraine will win more international diplomatic leverage against Moscow.<\/p>\n

He is also seeking a reciprocal supply of advanced American-made air defense missiles Ukraine needs to counter Russia\u2019s attacks.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine contributed to this report.__<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Russian and Ukrainian officials made rival claims of battlefield successes in their 4-year-old war,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":647361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[95762,185158,69,57,83,6087,37593,3097,50,257,3658,3657,273,3660,274,3656,103,107,77429],"class_list":["post-647360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-alexander-bogomaz","tag-denis-pushilin","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-kyiv","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-russia","tag-russia-government","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-government","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-yuri-ushakov"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116209130236237499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}