A senior Ukrainian commander said on Wednesday, May 27, that Kyiv has a six-month window to seize the battlefield initiative from Russia and improve its leverage in potential peace talks, predicting a major “turning point” in the war is approaching. Brigadier General Andriy Biletsky, commander of Ukraine’s Third Army Corps, told Reuters in an interview at an undisclosed underground location in the Kharkiv region that Russian forces are becoming exhausted after more than four years of full-scale war.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “I believe the next six to nine months are a turning point,” Biletsky said. “More precisely, I think the next six are the most critical.” Russia has continued making gradual advances along the front line since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022, though the pace of those gains has slowed in 2026 as Ukrainian forces intensified pressure on Russian logistics, air defenses and military infrastructure. Biletsky said Ukraine could regain battlefield momentum if it maintains pressure over the coming months and secures strategic positions before entering negotiations with Moscow. “We need to define those directions where we can improve our positions, take some strategic points, and then speak with the Russians from a position of strength – not weakness – about a truly stable truce,” he said. The issue of control over the Donetsk region remains one of the main obstacles in US-backed peace talks, which have largely stalled. Moscow demands full control over the region, while Kyiv refuses to withdraw from territories that Russian troops have failed to capture.