Ukraine’s soldiers are doing much better in the pitched battles in the east of the country than Russia is letting on, Kyiv’s top commander said, denouncing what he called Kremlin “disinformation” aimed at influencing a foreign audience.

This week’s briefing by Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi is aimed at changing the narrative as Ukraine comes under fierce pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to throw in the towel and agree to a peace deal his people initially sketched out with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It might seem like Ukraine “is only withdrawing” against Russia’s incessant attacks, but in reality, Kyiv is holding the line and has even been able to retake some ground in key contested towns in recent days, Syrskyi said.

He said Ukraine wants to show it is “not just retreating,” but as soon as Kyiv spells out areas where it has retaken control, “the enemy immediately transfers additional troops there, or missiles fly there. For us, this causes additional losses while we are trying to minimize them.”

He talked to reporters in Kyiv as Russia continues to grind out incremental gains bought at horrendous cost against fierce Ukrainian resistance.

Earlier this month, the Russian defense ministry claimed its troops succeeded in occupying the crucial frontline city of Pokrovsk, as well as surrounding Ukrainian troops in nearby Myrnohrad and also taking over Vovchyansk and Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region.

The Ukrainian army insists that its forces are back in parts of Pokrovsk. It says small groups of Russian soldiers are infiltrating to pose for pictures with flags for propaganda purposes, but don’t fully control the shattered ruins of the city.

An audience of one

While Russia’s frontline gains are small, the Kremlin hopes to persuade Ukraine’s backers that continued support for Kyiv is futile. That is the message that’s being received in Washington.

In an interview with POLITICO this week, Trump underlined that he wants Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to agree to a peace deal, fast.

“Well, he’s gonna have to get on the ball and start accepting things, you know, when you’re losing — because you’re losing,” Trump said.

The first iteration of the plan called for Ukraine to hand over key defensive areas in the Donetsk region, including Pokrovsk, but has since been modified following strong protests from Kyiv and European countries. Zelenskyy is insisting that he will not hand over any Ukrainian territory to Russia.

Syrskyi underlined that Russia’s gains are much smaller than the Kremlin lets on.

“The scale of Russian lies exceeds the real pace of troop advance by many times,” Syrskyi said. “The enemy uses disinformation and fake maps in a hybrid war against Ukraine, influencing both a foreign audience and our society and our army.”

The Institute of the Study of War said in an update released Tuesday that Russian forces have gained only 0.77 percent of Ukrainian territory so far this year while suffering disproportionately high personnel costs.

The Russian campaign to militarily seize the rest of Donetsk, including a belt of heavily fortified cities, would likely take at least two to three years, pose a significant challenge, and result in difficult and costly battles that Russia may not be able to sustain, ISW said.

“Russia’s cognitive warfare effort aims to push Ukraine and the West to cede this heavily defended territory to Russia without a fight, allowing Russia to avoid spending significant amounts of time and resources to try to seize it on the battlefield,” the think tank added.

Syrskyi said that in some areas, Russian forces are only moving forward less than 5 kilometers per month.

“At such pace, the advance of the Russians with daily losses of more than 1,000 people is a negligible result,” the general added.

However, Syrskyi admitted that the situation is harsh for Ukrainian troops defending Pokrovsk, where Russia has poured 156,000 men into the fight. “It is currently the main theater of military operations,” Syrskyi said.

He admitted that this fall, Ukrainian troops did fully withdraw from Pokrovsk, but on Nov. 15, they conducted a counteroffensive and retook almost half the city.

“We continue to hold the northern part of the city, approximately along the railway line. In addition, west of Pokrovsk, we have cleared and controlled about 54 square kilometers,” Syrskyi said.

“The situation is difficult, especially during fog and rain. The enemy takes advantage of the weather conditions to enter the city, avoiding damage from our UAVs. However, in the future, we are only increasing the number of our group within Pokrovsk,” the commander added.