Occupiers fail to capture single settlement in Ukraine over week - media

Russian troops did not capture a single settlement in Ukraine last week.

Military observer Valery Shiryaev has noted this, referring to the russian Defense Ministry's report.

"Yes, this is the first time we have seen this... We have to start our program and state that not a single settlement has been occupied by the Russian army this week," Shiryaev said.

The russian attributed this to counterattacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) - "raids", which, according to him, began in February.

"These raids are taking breath, they do stop the advance of the Russian army, that is, the result is achieved... The entire Russian army has stopped," Shiryaev said.

He added that in the fall of 2025, there were no such advances by the Armed Forces. According to the analyst, if last year it was believed that the Russian Armed Forces had a strategic initiative along the entire front line, now "this is not the case - there are many places where they [the Armed Forces] are on equal terms."

The OSINT project Deep State also notes the absence of seizures of Ukrainian villages: in its reports over the past week, it mentioned only limited advances by russian troops in some areas.

Earlier, AFP reported based on data from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that in March, the russian Armed Forces seized only 23 km² of Ukrainian territory, losing some of the captured areas.

The results were the worst for the russian army since September 2023. The ISW attributed this to Ukraine's counteroffensive, as well as russia's "ban on the use of Starlink terminals in Ukraine" and the kremlin's "efforts to restrict access to Telegram."

Meanwhile, as the Ukrainian News agency earlier informed, ISW stated in its April 10 report, that Ukrainian counterattacks in the areas of Oleksandrivka and Huliaipole "disrupt Russian efforts in other areas of the front line, including the Pokrovsk area and the Donetsk 'belt of fortresses'.

Ukrainian counterattacks have led to "overstretching of Russian forces" and, in particular, forced the russian command to disperse forces and deploy strategic reserves, analysts say.