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Ukrainian forces captured more territory than they ceded to Russia in February 2026, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on March 2.
The statement comes as Russian advances slowed across much of the front during the winter months, while Ukrainian troops stepped up operations in parts of the south.
“We survived this difficult ‘battle of the winter,’” Syrskyi wrote, adding that February marked Ukraine’s strongest relative territorial performance since the incursion into Russia’s Kursk Oblast in summer 2024, reports the Kyiv Independent.
Southern front shifts
According to Kyiv, Ukrainian units have been pushing forward along sections of the southern front line, particularly where Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts meet.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Feb. 21 that Ukrainian forces had liberated 300 square kilometers during a counteroffensive operation.
However, independently verifying territorial changes has become increasingly difficult as fighting intensifies and front lines remain fluid.
Open-source videos circulated in February showed Ukrainian troops conducting assaults in contested areas lacking major natural defensive features.
Grey zone warfare
Military analysts describe the southern sector as a wide “grey zone,” where both sides conduct infiltration and clearing operations.
Open-source mapping project Deep State reported that while Russian advances in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts have largely stalled, Moscow has made concerning gains near the occupied city of Siversk in Donetsk Oblast.
The dynamic nature of the battlefield means many operations involve short-term positional shifts rather than large-scale breakthroughs.
Other developments
In separate developments reported on March 2:
- The United States has deployed LUCAS kamikaze drones against Iran for the first time in combat.
- A Russian drone strike hit a passenger train in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, killing one person and injuring 10 others.
- A new poll found that 70% of Ukrainians are skeptical that U.S.-Ukraine-Russia talks will result in lasting peace.
Sources: Kyiv Independent, Deep State
