After more than four years on the Ukrainian front lines, officer Kyrylo Bondarenko is finally sensing a shift. “We can see and feel how the mood among the Russian troops on the front line is changing. They are exhausted,” Bondarenko told CNN.
“We have managed to turn the tide,” Bondarenko, who serves in the Ukrainian unmanned aerial systems unit Lazar’s Group and is currently fighting near Zaporizhzhia, told CNN.
He’s not alone in feeling this.
Last month, Ukraine managed to liberate more land than Russia seized – the first time Moscow suffered a net loss of territory since Ukraine’s August 2024 incursion into the southern Russian Kursk region, according to analysis from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based conflict monitor.
While the amount of territory liberated by Ukraine remains very small – Russia still controls almost 20% of Ukraine’s land – Kyiv appears to have the upper hand, for now.
