Russia’s army recorded almost no territorial gains on the front line in Ukraine in March for the first time in two and a half years, AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed.

The Russian army has been slowing in its advances since late 2025 — because of Kyiv’s localised breakthroughs in the southeast of the country — and lost ground in February and March on the southern section of the front line between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Across the entire front line, the Russian army seized only 23 sq. km in March, losing territory in some areas, 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.

The ISW worked with the Critical Threats Project (part of the American Enterprise Institute, or AEI), another U.S. think tank specialising in conflict.

The Russian army made 319 square kilometres of gains in January and 123 sq. km in February, which was then the smallest advance since April 2024.

Its advance in March was the smallest since September 2023.

The ISW attributed the slowdown to Ukrainian counter-offensives, but also to “Russia’s ban on using Starlink terminals in Ukraine” and “the Kremlin’s efforts to restrict access to Telegram”.

The messaging app, very popular among Russians, including those fighting on the front, has been barely usable in recent months due to blocks imposed by the authorities.

As in February, Russia lost ground on the southern section of the front line, between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, where it occupied more than 400 sq. km at the end of January.

This area shrank to 200 sq. km in February and to 144 sq. km in March.

The situation was, however, unfavourable for Kyiv further north in the Donetsk region, towards the two major regional cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

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.

Four years after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow occupies just over 19% of the country, the majority of which was seized during the first weeks of the conflict.

Approximately 7%, including Crimea and areas in the Donbas region, was already under Russian or pro-Russian separatist control before the invasion.

Russia is investigating ​Telegram founder Pavel Durov as part of ‌a criminal case on the “facilitation ​of terrorist activities”, state-run ⁠newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported, citing the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Mr. Durov could not be immediately reached ‌for comment on the report, but in recent days, Telegram ‌has denied a host of allegations ‌by ⁠Russia that the app is ⁠a haven for criminal activity and compromised by both Western and Ukrainian intelligence.

“The actions of ​the head of ‌Telegram, P. Durov, are being investigated as part of a criminal case on the grounds of a crime under ‌Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 (assistance ​to terrorist activities) of the Criminal Code of Russia,” Rossiyskaya ⁠Gazeta reported in an article it said was “based on materials from the FSB ‌of Russia”.

Telegram, which says it has more than 1 billion active users globally, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Russia’s state communications regulator has introduced restrictions on ‌Telegram, which is hugely popular in ​Russia for public and private communications, over what it says is ⁠a failure by the company to delete ⁠extremist content.

Moscow is trying to get Russians to switch to ‌the state-backed app known as MAX, which launched almost a year ​ago.

A Russian strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bogodukhiv killed four people, including three young children, an official said on Wednesday (February 11, 2026).

Two one-year-old boys and a two-year-old girl died as a result of an enemy strike, according to regional military head Oleg Synegubov.

Also Read | How many Russians died in Ukraine? Data points out what Moscow hides

A 34-year-old man in the same house as the children also died from his wounds, Synegubov said on Telegram.

He added that a 74-year-old woman was wounded and was receiving medical assistance.

In an earlier statement, he also said a 35-year-old pregnant woman had been wounded in the strike.

Bogodukhiv is located in Kharkiv region, where Russian forces have recently stepped up attacks on transport and energy infrastructure.

Ukrainian and Russian officials have held U.S.-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending Moscow’s four-year invasion.

The two sides conducted a prisoner swap last week, though an agreement to draw a line under the conflict still seems a way off.

According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), around 15,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russia invaded in February 2022.

HRMMU said that 2025 was the deadliest year with more than 2,500 civilians killed.

The Kremlin said ‍on Friday (January 30, 2026) that Russian President ​Vladimir Putin had ‌received a ​personal request from his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump to halt strikes on Kyiv until February 1 in order ​to create a ⁠favourable environment for peace negotiations.

Asked about the request and ​Russia’s response, ⁠Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined further comment.

Ukraine has said it will ‌reciprocate if Russia ‌forgoes strikes on the country’s energy ‍infrastructure amid a period of bitterly cold weather.

The ‍next round of trilateral peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States were set to take place in ⁠Abu Dhabi on Sunday (February 1, 2026), but Ukrainian President ​Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday (January 30, 2026) ⁠the date or location could change.

Kyiv said on Thursday (January 29, 2026) that it had received from Russia 1,000 remains of people that Moscow said were Ukrainian soldiers killed fighting the Kremlin’s army.

The exchange of prisoners of war and the remains of killed soldiers is one of the few remaining areas of cooperation between Kyiv and Moscow, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“Today, repatriation measures took place, under which 1,000 bodies of the deceased, which the Russian side claims belong to Ukrainian defenders, were returned to Ukraine,” Kyiv’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said in a statement on social media.

Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky confirmed an exchange had taken place, writing on Telegram that the Russian side had received the remains of 38 killed Russian soldiers.

Mr. Medinsky said the exchange was made possible as part of agreements struck between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul earlier last year.

Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides since Russia invaded, though neither side regularly publishes data on their own casualties.

Washington insisted on Saturday (November 22, 2025) that its Ukraine proposal is indeed official U.S. policy, denying claims by a group of senators that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told them the document under discussion is just a Russian “wish list.”

The dispute over the 28-point plan — which cedes Ukrainian territory long sought by Moscow — threw an extraordinary element of confusion into efforts to negotiate an end to the war.

US President Donald Trump has pushed the plan, pressuring the Ukrainians to accept it within days. Negotiators will meet in Switzerland on Sunday.

However, after a storm of criticism that the proposal is almost entirely favorable to Moscow, several US senators spoke out, holding a press conference at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia, Canada on Saturday.

Also Read | Ukraine, U.S. to start talks in Switzerland on Trump’s plan to end war

The senators — Republican Mike Rounds, independent Angus King, and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen — said Mr. Rubio told them the current Ukraine proposal is not the official U.S. position, but instead lays out a “Russian wish list.”

“What he (Rubio) told us was that this was not the American proposal. This was a proposal that was received by someone… representing Russia in this proposal. It was given to Mr Witkoff,” Mr. Rounds said, referring to Mr. Trump’s diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff.

“It is not our recommendation. It is not our peace plan.”

Mr. King corroborated those comments, saying “the leaked 28-point plan — which, according to Secretary Rubio, is not the administration’s position — it is essentially the wish list of the Russians that is now being presented to the Europeans and to the Ukrainians.”

‘Blatantly false’

Mr. Rubio took to X to refute the senators’s claims via social media.

“The peace proposal was authored by the U.S.,” Mr. Rubio wrote late Saturday (November 22). “It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”

Earlier, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott also denied the claims, sharing a post on X citing Mr. King’s comments.

“This is blatantly false,” Mr. Pigott posted. “As Secretary Rubio and the entire Administration has consistently maintained, this plan was authored by the United States, with input from both the Russians and Ukrainians.”

However, Shaheen said she and Mr Rounds spoke to Mr Rubio on a shared call while the top U.S. diplomat was en route to Geneva for the latest round of negotiations with Ukrainian officials.

Mr. Rounds said he and his colleagues had asked for a conversation with Mr. Rubio over their concerns with the plan.

In the call, Mr. fRubio was “very frank about it,” he said.

“It doesn’t look like normally something that would come out of our government, particularly the way it was written. It looked more like it was written in Russian to begin with,” Mr. Rounds said.

Mr. King noted that the plan should not reward Moscow for its invasion.

“Everyone wants this war to end but we want it to end on a fair and just peace that respects the integrity and the sovereignty of Ukraine and does not reward aggression and also provides adequate security guarantees,” he said.

 Russia launched an overnight attack on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, injuring 11 residents, including four children, Ukraine’s emergency services said on Friday (October 31, 2025).

The Sumy region borders Russia and has been under constant attack from both drones and missiles.

The emergency services said on Telegram messenger that Russia had struck a residential multi-storey building, private houses and infrastructure facilities.

Local Governor Ihor Kalchenko said Russia had attacked the railway depot, destroying several carriages and damaging buildings.