April 15 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday it was introducing a new combat model that combines drone warfare with infantry activities, pointing to what its top commander had declared a success in retaking territory from Russian forces in the south of the country.
Kiev’s army recaptured nearly 50 square kilometers (19 square miles) of territory from Russia in March, building on gains made since the start of the year, top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said.
Drones have played an important role in Kiev’s four-year war with Moscow. Both sides are also investing resources in developing ways to intercept drones and upgrading air defense systems.
“A new paradigm of warfare is being introduced, with drone strike forces combining air and ground unmanned systems with infantry into a single integrated system,” the Ministry of Defense said in a brief statement on Telegram.
“This approach is already having results in the south, where large swaths of territory have been liberated since February thanks to the use of these advanced forces.”
Silski assessed the regained territory in a separate statement on Telegram. He also said that as spring weather improved, Russian forces stepped up offensive operations along nearly the entire 1,200-kilometer (775-mile) front.
Silsky said the area around the embattled eastern city of Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to fully capture since mid-2024, was one of the hottest areas of fighting in March.
He also pointed to the Oleksandrivka, Kostiantynivka and Lyman regions in the southeast and east as the “hottest” areas this month.
Military analysts say Ukraine’s counterattack in the southeast is helping to undermine Russian efforts around Pokrovsk and Russia’s overall spring offensive.
Silsky said last week that Ukraine had regained control of 480 square kilometers of territory since the end of January, and President Volodymyr Zelensky said this month that the situation on the front lines was the best in Ukraine since the middle of last year.
Russian troops are slowly advancing in the eastern Donetsk region, often claiming new villages.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that it had captured the settlement of Vovchansky Kutori in the northeastern part of Kharkiv Oblast.
The Russian military said it was also trying to create a buffer zone in the border areas of Kharkiv and Sumy.
Silsky said in comments on Telegram that the Ukrainian military is seeking to weaken Russia’s offensive capabilities by maintaining a high rate of attacks on the military, defense industry and other facilities.
In March, Ukraine achieved 76 such targets, including 15 refining industry facilities, he said.
As the war with Iran drives up global prices, Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian ports, refineries and fertilizer plants in an attempt to curb Moscow’s commodity export revenues.
(Reporting by Anna Pluchnica; Editing by Ron Popeski and Matthew Lewis)
