The pace of the Russian Armed Forces operations has slightly decreased this week due to tactical reorganization, Kundla said at a weekly press conference at the Ministry of Defense. While Russia holds the initiative in most of the front lines, it has not achieved its goals, he said.

"Ukraine's deep-rooted attacks on Russia's critical infrastructure have risen in the run-up to this weekend's Russian presidential elections," said Kundla.

Kundla said the attacks since March 12 have been impressive. He added that Ukraine is hitting targets inside Russia up to the Volga River.

"What makes this extraordinary is the distance of the attacks up to 1,000 kilometers deep into the Russian Federation's territory, and also the total amount of equipment used, which indicates Ukraine's ability to hit targets on Russian territory basically up to the Volga River," Kundla said.

Public sources show up to 12 percent of Russian oil processing capacity has been knocked off course, the colonel said.

Speaking about Belarus, he said a week-long readiness check involving the country's armed forces began on March 11.

"Readiness checks have involved moving units to polygons, conducting small-scale reserve training exercises, and checking command structures," Kundla said.

The timing and nature of the readiness check, which is a deliberate and long-planned activity, mirrors the Dragon 2024 military exercise taking place in Poland, he suggested.

Kundla also discussed the activity in each region of Ukraine this week.

"In the north of Ukraine, raids by Russian resistance fighters in the Russian border regions of Kursk and Belgorod oblasts have prompted the Russian authorities to react to the situation," said Kundla. "Russia's well-established pattern of indirect fire terror against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure is therefore likely to have been somewhat reduced."

In the Luhansk direction, on the Kupyansk-Kreminna-Svetavo line, the pressure of the armed forces of the Russian Federation continues, where some areas have been captured in the Kupyansk and Lyman regions.

"While Russian forces are holding the initiative there, Ukraine is similarly holding its defensive positions on the eastern banks of the Oskil and Zherebets rivers. It is estimated that Russian pressure could increase in the coming weeks in this section," said Kundla.

Russia is still mainly attacking in the direction of Avdiivka, although there have been no significant changes. "The most active battles are taking place in the north-west, south-west and south of the settlement, where smaller areas have also been captured," Kundla added.

There have been no significant changes in the direction of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. "Russia continues to exert low-level pressure on the Robotyne and Verbove directions. The bridgehead of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the eastern bank of the Dnieper remains in place and the intensity of fighting there is low," the colonel said.

In summary, Kundla said that Russia still holds the initiative and has won small areas of land. Russia's goals are still unfulfilled and the pace of the operation has slowed a little.

"Ukraine's defenses must, and clearly Ukraine has acquired the capability to, successfully attack strategic targets in the depths of Russia," he concluded.

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