Zelensky says frontline situation best for Ukraine in the last 10 months

KYIV - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the frontline situation for Ukraine was the best since the middle of 2025, adding that Kyiv’s troops had foiled a Russian offensive in March.

With the war in its fifth year, the fighting is raging along more than 1,200km of the frontline.

Russian troops are grinding down Ukrainian defences, but Kyiv is also counterattacking.

Mr Zelensky said that taking into account both the occupation and the liberation of the territories, Kyiv was “slightly in the positive”, liberating about 20sq km.

He did not specify a time frame for the gains.

“The offensive they were planning for March was thwarted by the actions of our armed forces. That is why the Russians will now simply step up their assault operations,” Mr Zelensky said, in remarks released by his office on April 3.

“At this point, we do not see a large-scale threat.”

Russia controls just under 20 per cent of Ukraine’s territory - much of that seized before the 2022 full-scale invasion.

The DeepState open source intelligence map suggests Russia has advanced by only around 500sq km in total since the start of January, slowing the pace from 2025.

“Overall, the frontline is holding... The situation is complex, but the best it has been in the last 10 months,” he said, citing data from Ukrainian and British intelligence.

The Russian troops were amassing near the logistics hub of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region and also near Hulaipole in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, Mr Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian General Staff reported 230 combat clashes over the past 24 hours, saying that most of the attacks were near Pokrovsk and Zaporizhzhia.

It said fighting typically accelerates as the weather warms, and efforts to find a diplomatic solution have so far brought no results.

Zelensky invites US negotiators to Kyiv

Russia has repeatedly said that its troops were extending their gains in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, whose capture Moscow has made one of the objectives of its invasion.

Moscow is demanding that Kyiv withdraw its troops from the parts of the Donetsk region it still controls.

Mr Zelensky rejects that and aims to negotiate a lasting peace deal and strong security guarantees for Ukraine.

With the war in the Middle East increasing uncertainty over future weapons supplies to Ukraine, and peace talks brokered by the US effectively suspended, Mr Zelensky said he invited US negotiators to visit Kyiv and then potentially travel to Moscow.

“The delegation will do everything possible, under the current circumstances – during the war with Iran – to come to Kyiv,” Mr Zelensky said. “This is an alternative format to a trilateral meeting at the level of technical teams.” REUTERS