Russia ‘has taken 1700 square km’ of Ukraine in 2026

Russian forces have captured 1,700 square kilometers in Ukraine in 2026 and are advancing towards the so-called stronghold belt in Donbas, Moscow’s top general said while inspecting his forces.

Since the 2022 invasion, Russia has been trying to capture the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, where Kiev’s forces have been pushed back towards a string of cities in overwhelming fighting.

Kiev also reported some gains in the deadliest war in Europe since World War II.

Senior Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said in mid-April that Kiev forces regained control of about 50 square kilometers of territory in March.

“A total of 80 settlements and more than 1,700 square kilometers of territory have come under our control since the beginning of this year,” Chief of General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov said in the images published by the defense ministry on Tuesday. he said.

Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield accounts, and a spokesman for Ukraine’s General Staff said he would not comment on the claim.

Pro-Ukrainian maps show Russia capturing approximately 600 square kilometers of territory by 2026.

Gerasimov said Russia’s southern force group attacked the Donetsk fortress belt, which includes the cities of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka, and Russian forces were about 7 to 12 km from Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

He said Russian troops were already fighting in parts of Kostiantynivka. Gerasimov also said Russian forces were advancing in Sumy in the north and Kharkiv in the northeast to create what he called a “security zone.”

Kiev’s army said Tuesday that its forces had stopped two Russian attempts to advance around villages near Sloviansk in the past 24 hours and launched 19 attacks near Moscow’s Kostiantynivka and eight surrounding villages.

It was also stated that Russian forces made five attempts to break through Ukrainian defenses around various settlements near the Russian border in the Kharkiv region.

According to Russian estimates, Russia controls about 90 percent of Donbas, about 75 percent of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and a small part of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions in Ukraine.

Russia also controls Crimea, which it annexed in 2014 following previous conflicts. The Black Sea peninsula is internationally recognized as part of Ukraine by most countries.

Pro-Ukrainian maps show Russia controls 116,793 square kilometers, or 19.35 percent, of Ukraine, but Russia’s advance slows in 2026.