Ukraine recaptures more territory than it loses along front line in May, Syrskyi says

Ukrainian forces recaptured 100 square kilometers more territory than they lost along the front line in May, bringing total gains since the start of 2026 to about 600 square kilometers, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on June 8.

Syrskyi did not specify how much territory was liberated from Russian occupation in May.

Earlier, in an assessment published on June 1, Ukrainian monitoring group DeepState said that Ukraine had gained more territory than Russia occupied in May, marking the first monthly net decline in Russian advances since 2023.

The situation along the front line remains complex and fluid, with Russian forces continuing attempts to advance in eastern and southern Ukraine amid a significant increase in combat activity, Syrskyi said on Facebook.

The heaviest fighting is taking place in the Pokrovsk sector in Donetsk Oblast, the Oleksandrivka sector, which lies at the junction of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, and the Huliaipole sector in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, the commander-in-chief said.

Ukrainian forces retain the initiative in "certain areas" of the front, though Syrskyi did not specify their locations.

Ukrainian forces struck more than 88,000 Russian military targets and killed or wounded over 30,500 Russian troops over the past month. Ukrainian deep-strike operations also targeted 111 Russian military-industrial, energy, and oil infrastructure facilities, causing an estimated $1.058 billion in damage, according to Syrskyi.

In May, the Ukrainian Navy conducted about 1,500 operations to secure civilian shipping in the combat zone, allowing 633 vessels to reach ports in Odesa and along the Danube River, Syrskyi added.

Russia has not been able to gain "any real momentum" in its spring offensive and has failed to capture similar amounts of territory in recent months to what it occupied over the same period in previous years, retired Australian Army Major-General Mick Ryan said.

But he stressed that the second half of the year, particularly the fall months, would show how much Ukraine has improved its military effectiveness in 2026, as that period tends to see the fiercest fighting.

"I would say that there's a glimmer that a turning point might be coming because the most deadly parts of the year in the ground war are generally in the second half of the year, not in the first half," Ryan told the Kyiv Independent in May.

Russia's setbacks in May came as Ukraine stepped up efforts to disrupt Russian supply lines. Under its "logistical lockdown" campaign, Ukrainian forces have targeted and destroyed hundreds of Russian supply trucks using an expanding fleet of medium-range drones.

"Our goal is to increase the pressure on the Russians in the rear even further and prevent them from carrying out active assault operations," Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on May 27.