Russia's territorial gains in Ukraine are slowing down dramatically, two analyses have found, continuing a pattern from 2024 at a time when both nations are trying to project strength in the face of United States-mediated negotiations aimed at ending the war. Britain's Ministry of Defence last week estimated that Russian forces seized 143sq km (55sq miles) of Ukrainian land in March, compared with 196sq km (76sq miles) in February and 326sq km (126sq miles) in January. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington, DC-based think tank, spotted the same trend, estimating Russian gains at 203sq km (78sq miles) in March, 354sq km (137sq miles) in February and 427sq km (165sq miles) in January. These estimates are based on satellite imagery and geolocated open-source photography rather than claims by either side. Should this trend continue, Russian forces could come to a standstill by early summer, roughly coinciding with US President Donald Trump's self-imposed early deadline for achieving a ceasefire.

One person was killed Sunday as Russian air strikes hit the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, while the death toll from Friday's deadly attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih continued to rise. The Kyiv victim was found close to the strike's epicenter of the attack in the city's Darnytskyi district, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. A further three people were injured in the strike, which saw fires break out in several nonresidential areas, damaging cars and buildings. In a statement on social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the intensifying Russian attacks showed that there is still insufficient international pressure on Moscow. US WILL KNOW IN'MATTER OF WEEKS' IF RUSSIA IS SERIOUS ABOUT PEACE OR USING'DELAY TACTIC': RUBIO He said Russia has launched more than 1,460 guided aerial bombs, nearly 670 attack drones and more than 30 missiles at Ukraine in the past week alone.

At least 14 people, including six children, have been killed in a Russian missile attack on a residential area of the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, making it one of Moscow's deadliest strikes this year. Friday's attack on Zelenskyy's hometown, which comes as United States President Donald Trump is pushing for a ceasefire in the war, damaged residential blocks and caused fires, Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak wrote on the Telegram messaging app. The dead and wounded could be seen lying on the pavement, one of them by a playground, in unverified videos circulating on Telegram as grey smoke rose into the sky. At least 50 people were wounded, the emergency services said, adding that the figure was growing. More than 30 people, including a three-month-old baby, were admitted to hospital, Lysak said.

A Russian ballistic missile strike killed at least four people and wounded 17 in the city of Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown. The attack also sparked a fire in the city, said Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of Kryvyi Rih's military administration. Russian drone attacks overnight targeted the Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhia and Kharkiv, killing one person and injuring several others, officials said. Two people were killed and at least 32, including two children, were injured by a Russian drone attack which hit several multistorey apartment blocks in Kharkiv, the region's governor said. One person was also injured in a separate drone attack on Ruski Tyshky, a village outside Kharkiv.

Russia has launched a second straight day of missile and drone attacks, targeting several Ukrainian regions and killing at least five people. Two people were killed when a hotel was "wiped out" by a missile in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said on Tuesday. Three died in drone attacks on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday said Kyiv would retaliate and asked allies to consider joint air defence operations and provide long-range weapons capabilities. Ukraine's air force said it downed five of 10 incoming Russian missiles and 60 of 81 drones in Tuesday's attacks.

Russia has launched waves of missile and drone attacks targeting several Ukrainian regions killing at least four people, according to Ukraine's military, a day after it carried out a "massive" attack on Ukraine's power grid. Two people were killed when a hotel was "wiped out" in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said on Tuesday. Two more people died in drone attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhia, east of Kryvyi Rih. The Kyiv region's air defence systems were deployed several times overnight to repel missiles and drones targeting Kyiv, the regional military administration said on the Telegram messaging app. Ukrainian air defences shot down about 15 drones and several missiles near the Ukrainian capital during Russia's overnight attack, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said on Tuesday morning.

Russia's troops fought Thursday to regain lost ground in areas of Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin has illegally annexed while Moscow tried to pound the invaded country into submission with more missile and drone attacks on critical infrastructure. Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions near Bilohorivka, a village in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. In the neighboring Donetsk region, fighting raged near the city of Bakhmut. Kremlin-backed separatists have controlled parts of both regions for 8½ years. Putin declared martial law in Luhansk, Donetsk and southern Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions on Wednesday in an attempt to assert Russian authority in the annexed areas following a string of battlefield setbacks and a troubled troop mobilization.

In a metal workshop in the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih in southern Ukraine, a homemade anti-drone system waits to be mounted on a military pick-up truck. The contraption -- a heavy machine gun welded to steel tubes -- is one of several do-it-yourself weapons that are proving to be valuable additions to the Ukraine war effort. "We have the skills and the equipment, and we don't lack ideas," said Sergey Bondarenko in the workshop near the southern front. The well-built 39-year-old with a long black beard is a local leader of the territorial defence, a unit of the Ukrainian army. The device will be accompanied by shock absorbers, for more stability and precision, Bondarenko told AFP beside the anti-drone prototype.