The Russian Ministry of Defense (MOD) claims that Russian forces have captured the entire Luhansk Oblast for the third time during the war with Ukraine, although Russian forces have controlled most of it since October 2022.
This is according to the "Institute for the Study of War" (ISW).
The ISW has obtained evidence that Russian forces controlled 99.84% of Luhansk Oblast as of April 1, but have not captured Nadya and Novoehorivka (both east of Borova).
Russian authorities have repeatedly claimed to control the entire Luhansk Oblast throughout the war. Then-Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated in July 2022 that Russian forces had captured the region, and the head of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) Leonid Pasechnyk made the same claim again in June 2025.
Russian President Vladimir Putin later stated in October 2025 that Ukrainian forces retained positions in only 0.13% of Luhansk Oblast.
Russian forces have controlled most of Luhansk Oblast since the fall of 2022, when the front line in that area was established following the Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv. The Kremlin's claims of 2025 and 2026 for the capture of the region exaggerate the minimal changes on the front in Luhansk Oblast to create the false impression that Russian forces are rapidly advancing in various sectors of the battlefield.
On March 31, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia was demanding that Ukrainian forces withdraw from the rest of Donetsk Oblast within two months (by the end of May 2026), and implied that the Kremlin was trying to create the impression that Russia would inevitably take over Donbas and make new, tougher demands if Ukraine did not withdraw from Donetsk Oblast by the Kremlin's deadline.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to a question on April 1 about the alleged two-month deadline by saying that Zelensky should make this decision "today," but ideally he should have done so "yesterday".
Member of the Russian State Duma Defense Committee Andrei Kolesnik said that Zelensky should have withdrawn from the Donetsk region "that day".
First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Relations Alexei Chepa said that Russia's new conditions in the future could include demands that Ukraine also withdraw from Zaporizhia and Kherson regions and cede the cities of Odessa, Nikolaev, Dnipro and Kharkiv.
Russian forces conducted another long series of strikes against Ukraine with a total of 700 drones, launched in two waves on the night of March 31 to April 1 and during the day of April 1. Russian forces launched a total of 700 drones against Ukraine between 18:00 on March 31 and 18:00 on April 1 local time.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russian forces launched 339 drones of the "Shahed" type, "Gerbera" type, "Italmas" type and others, of which about 200 were "Shahed", from the directions of the cities of Bryansk, Kursk and Orel; Millerovo, Rostov Region; Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Krasnodar Territory; occupied Gvardeysk, Crimea; and occupied the city of Donetsk on the night of March 31 to April 1.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Ukrainian forces shot down 298 drones, that 20 drones hit 11 sites, and that drone debris fell in five sites. Ukrainian officials reported that Russian forces hit energy, industrial, and civilian infrastructure in Volyn, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Poltava, Odessa, Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Zakarpattia, and Khmelnytskyi regions.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russian forces also launched 361 "Shahed", "Gerbera", and other drones - of which about 250 were "Shahed" - between 08:00 and 18:00 local time on April 1.
ISW has monitored reports of seven Ukrainian drones crashing in the Baltics and Finland since March 23, likely as a result of Russian electronic warfare efforts. ISW has monitored reports of one drone crashing in Lithuania on March 23; two drones crashing in Latvia and Estonia on March 25; two drones crashing in Finland on March 29; one drone crashing in Estonia on March 31; and one that fell in southeastern Finland on April 1.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry (MFA) spokesman Georgy Tykhy responded on March 30 to reports that several Ukrainian drones had violated Finnish airspace on March 29, saying that the drones had likely deviated from their flight paths due to Russian electronic warfare interference.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibikha said on April 1 that Ukrainian intelligence assessed that Russian forces were deliberately directing drones toward the Baltic states for information and propaganda purposes.