Ukraine has retaken eight settlements in the southeast of the country in the past few weeks, Kyiv's top soldier has said, one day before the country marks the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion.
Elite Ukrainian troops have recaptured more than 400 square kilometers of territory along a chunk of the southern front lines since late January, Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's military, said in a post to messaging app Telegram on Monday.
Significant gains for Ukraine have been hard to come by since its initial counteroffensive against Russian forces in 2022, although Russia's grinding advances have also been slow and at a high cost to Moscow.
Russia has seized a total of 572 square kilometers of Ukraine -- including 19 settlements -- since the start of 2026, the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Friday.
Soldiers with Ukraine's airborne forces had said on Sunday they had kicked off an offensive operation to disrupt Russia's advance in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Ukrainian troops described the situation as "very dynamic" and said Russian soldiers were "clinging to every meter of the captured territory, using all available resources."
The airborne forces did not specify when the operation began but said they had recaptured more than 300 square kilometers of territory, covering eight settlements.
"Our soldiers are not only holding the defense but also successfully operating in the offensive operation," Syrskyi said.
Russia first said it had pushed from the eastern Donetsk region -- the site of much of the heaviest fighting of the war -- into neighboring Dnipropetrovsk in late June last year. Ukraine acknowledged Russia had established a presence in Dnipropetrovsk in August 2025.
Ukraine's military said in an update at 4 p.m. local time on Monday that Russia had launched three attacks around the Dnipropetrovsk village of Ternove, and just west, near Vyshneve. The settlements sit close to the Dnipropetrovsk border with both Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia.
Russia's defense ministry separately said on Monday its forces had attacked Ukrainian brigades, including assault forces, deployed in Dnipropetrovsk.
Ukraine's former commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said on Monday that as the war enters its fifth year, the rapid development of drone technology and artificial intelligence was reshaping how modern wars are fought.
The main goal now is to exhaust the other side's resources and manpower, Zaluzhnyi, the current Ukrainian ambassador to the U.K., said during an address in London.
The anniversary of Russia's invasion on Tuesday comes against the backdrop of U.S.-brokered peace talks, which stalled last week after what Ukraine called "difficult" discussions.
"It is no secret that negotiations aren't going smoothly," Kyrylo Budanov, the former military intelligence chief now serving as the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, said on Monday.
He said the moment to decide whether all those involved would carry on with their war effort or ink a deal was approaching, and suggested another round of negotiations could take place later this week.