Ukraine's Zelenskiy says Russia will have difficulty fulfilling planned advances

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Russia's military had failed to achieve aims it set out last year and would have difficulty fulfilling advances he said Moscow hoped to achieve.

Zelenskiy, addressing journalists in Kyiv, said Moscow's plans of seizing all of eastern Ukraine and areas further south remained unchanged.

But he said Moscow also hoped to advance towards the southeastern city of Dnipro and was also considering how to make gains in the southern Odesa region on the Black Sea.

He said Ukraine had secured maps outlining Russian plans for 2026-2027 but the maps had "nothing in common with reality" because Russia could not accomplish the task.

"We understand what they want. We understand that their directions remain current - the occupation of the east of our country, specifically the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," he said.

"They certainly want to continue in the direction of the Zaporizhzhia region and toward the city of Dnipro. And although it is difficult for them, they are looking toward the Odesa region."

For the moment, he said, Ukraine "does not see that they have the capability to accomplish the tasks we saw on those maps" but the state of things would depend on the supply of weapons to Kyiv and on Ukraine's own domestic production.

Russia has been engaged in a long, slow advance through Ukraine's eastern Donbas - made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions - and its Defence Ministry said on Monday that its forces had captured three new villages.

But Ukraine's General Staff said its troops had retaken nine settlements further south in the Zaporizhzhia region since the end of January and were pressing ahead with a counterattack along the southeastern frontline.

The issue of territory is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in U.S.-mediated talks on a settlement. Russia wants Ukraine to cede parts of the Donetsk region that its forces have not captured and Zelenskiy rejects any such notion.

-Ron Popeski and Oleksandr Kozhukhar/Reuters