{"id":40697,"date":"2026-04-04T07:13:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T07:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=40697"},"modified":"2026-04-04T07:13:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T07:13:48","slug":"russias-military-campaign-in-ukraine-stalls-for-first-time-in-more-than-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=40697","title":{"rendered":"Russia&#8217;s military campaign in Ukraine stalls for first time in more than two years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/russia\/\" target=\"_self\">Russia&#8217;<\/a>s army recorded no territorial gains on the front line in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/ukraine\/\" target=\"_self\">Ukraine<\/a> in March for the first time in two and half years, AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed.<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian forces managed to recapture 9 square kilometres in March as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/moscow\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\">Moscow<\/a>&#8216;s forces slowed down across the entire front line, according to the analysis. This figure excludes infiltration operations conducted by Russian forces beyond the front line, as well as advances claimed by the Russian side but neither confirmed nor denied by the ISW.<\/p>\n<div class=\"em-video-wrapper m-em-video\" data-media-video-wbmz534564-f24-en-20260402=\"\" data-wrapper-video-player=\"\" data-show-hidden-video-player=\"WBMZ534564-F24-EN-20260402\" data-youtube-script=\"\">\n<div class=\"m-em-video__video\">\n<div class=\"o-em-consent \">\n<div class=\"o-em-consent__content\">\n<p class=\"o-em-consent__content__text\">To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.<\/p>\n<p>        <button class=\"a-master-button a-master-button--dark\" data-action=\"accept\"><br \/>\n            Accept<br \/>\n                            <svg class=\"a-svg a-svg--icon-check\">\n    <use xlink:href=\"http:\/\/www.france24.com\/build\/images\/svg\/sprite.c98bf387c90bc4a87186b0b783f15ba0.svg#icon-check\" href=\"http:\/\/www.france24.com\/build\/images\/svg\/sprite.c98bf387c90bc4a87186b0b783f15ba0.svg#icon-check\"\/>\n  <\/svg><br \/>\n        <\/button><br \/>\n        <button class=\"a-link\" data-action=\"manage\">Manage my choices<i class=\"a-svg a-svg--icon-edit\"\/><\/button>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"o-em-adblock\" data-adblock-content=\"\">\n<div class=\"o-em-adblock__content\">\n<p class=\"o-em-adblock__content__text\">One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.<\/p>\n<p>            <button class=\"a-master-button a-master-button--dark\" data-action=\"reload\">Try again<\/button>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"m-item-image m-item-image--16x9 m-item-image--has-caption\">\n<picture class=\"a-picture a-picture--16x9\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s.france24.com\/media\/display\/e503998c-2a97-11f1-8559-005056a90284\/w:388\/p:16x9\/EN-20260328-120436-120726-CS.webp 388w,https:\/\/s.france24.com\/media\/display\/e503998c-2a97-11f1-8559-005056a90284\/w:720\/p:16x9\/EN-20260328-120436-120726-CS.webp 720w,https:\/\/s.france24.com\/media\/display\/e503998c-2a97-11f1-8559-005056a90284\/w:1024\/p:16x9\/EN-20260328-120436-120726-CS.webp 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 639px) calc(100vw - 32px), (max-width: 1076px) calc(100vw - 44px), 850px\"><br \/>\n<\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"a-figcaption\">\n                                <span>\u00a9 FRANCE 24<\/span>            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The ISW worked with the Critical Threats Project (part of the American Enterprise Institute, or AEI), another US think-tank specialising in conflict. The Russian army has been slowing its advance since late 2025 due to counter-offensives in the southeast of the country, with 319 square kilometres of gains in January and 123 square kilometres in February, the smallest advances since April 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a-read-more\"><span class=\"a-read-more__label\">Read more<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/deadly-russian-strikes-damage-port-maternity-hospital\" target=\"_self\" class=\"a-read-more__link\">Deadly Russian strikes damage port, maternity hospital<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The ISW attributed the slowdown of the Russian army in recent months to Ukrainian counter-offensives, but also to &#8220;Russia&#8217;s ban on using Starlink terminals in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/ukraine\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\">Ukraine<\/a>&#8221; and &#8220;the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/kremlin\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\">Kremlin<\/a>&#8216;s efforts to restrict access to Telegram&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The messaging app, very popular among Russians including those fighting on the front line, has been barely usable in recent months due to blocks imposed by the authorities.<\/p>\n<p>As in February, Russia has lost ground on the southern section of the front line, between the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/donetsk\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\">Donetsk<\/a> and Dnipropetrovsk regions, where it occupied more than 400 square kilometres at the end of January. This area shrank to 200 square kilometres in February and to 144 square kilometres in March. The situation was, however, unfavourable for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/kyiv\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\">Kyiv<\/a> further north in the Donetsk region, towards the two major regional cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a-read-more\"><span class=\"a-read-more__label\">Read more<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/russian-strikes-on-ukraine-kill-at-least-5\" target=\"_self\" class=\"a-read-more__link\">Russian strikes on Ukraine kill at least 5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In 2025, the Russian army made more progress in Ukraine than in the preceding 24 months. But in the first three months of 2026, Russian territorial gains were half those of the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Four years after the start of Russia&#8217;s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow occupies just over 19 percent of the country, the majority of which was seized during the first weeks of the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>Approximately seven percent, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/crimea\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\">Crimea<\/a> and areas in the Donbas region, was already under Russian or pro-Russian separatist control before the invasion.<\/p>\n<p><em>(FRANCE 24 with AFP)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/europe\/20260402-russia-military-campaign-in-ukraine-stalls-for-first-time-in-more-than-two-years\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russia&#8217;s army recorded no territorial gains on the front line in Ukraine in March for the first time in two and half years, AFP analysis of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}