Ukraine says it is in ‘strongest frontline position in a year’ as Russian advance grinds to a halt

Ukraine’s foreign minister has said the country’s frontline position is the “strongest” it has been in a year.

Andrii Sybiha credited the progress to Kyiv’s superiority in drone warfare and air defence, which he claimed had the ability to shoot down up to 90 per cent of attacks.

“We have minimised the Russians’ advantage in manpower through the use of drones,” Mr Sybiha said on Thursday.

He added: “For us, the situation on the battlefield is about strengthening our negotiating position. We can shoot down up to 90 per cent of the targets that strike our cities… [Ukraine’s] position on the battlefield is indeed the strongest, or the most solid, it has been over the past year.”

Earlier this month, Agence France-Presse analysed data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and found that Russia had made almost no territorial gains across the frontline in March. It marks the country’s worst progress in two and a half years.

According to the analysis, Russia lost almost 23.2 square miles of land in Ukraine since 1 March.

The news comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky renewed calls for trilateral peace discussions with Russia, despite US negotiators largely preoccupied with the ongoing war in Iran.

The Kremlin rebuffed the call for fresh talks between leaders, saying that President Vladimir Putin would only sit down with Zelensky to finalise an agreed peace deal.

However, Ukraine’s position was further strengthened after the European Union was able to release €90bn (£78.2bn) in funds for a loan to Kyiv after Hungary’s nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban lost the national elections to Peter Magyar last week. Orban had been holding up the support and had been a staunch ally of Putin and Russia.

The loan will allow Ukraine to purchase weapons and support its economy.

“Today is an important day for our defense and for our relations with the European Union,” Mr Zelensky wrote in a post on X on Thursday afternoon.

“The European support loan for Ukraine has been unblocked – €90 billion over two years. This package will strengthen our army, make Ukraine more resilient, and enable us to fulfill our social obligations to Ukrainians, as set out in law.

“It matters that Ukraine is securing this level of financial certainty – after more than four years of full-scale war.”

Mr Zelensky said that the first tranche of support will be released around May and June and will be directed to “arms production, the procurement of necessary weapons from partners that we do not yet produce in Ukraine, and the preparation of our energy sector and critical infrastructure for the next winter.”