Russian advances in August: Largest territorial gains since 2022
In August, the Russian army captured the most Ukrainian territory since October 2022, reported AFP after analyzing data collected by the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Russian forces advanced in August, gaining 6 square miles each day, primarily in the Donetsk region, calculated AFP. As noted, the main offensive aims to capture Pokrovsk, which serves as an important logistical hub for the Ukrainians. On Sunday, the aggressor's forces were slightly over 4 miles from this city.
AFP recalled that the last time Moscow gained this much territory in a month was in October 2022, in response to the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region.
In 2024, Russia captured an additional 668 square miles of Ukrainian territory. This is already three times more than in 2023, when Ukrainian counter-offensives were effective in reclaiming territory occupied by the enemy.
Russians now occupy 18 percent of Ukrainian territory
In recent months, Ukrainian forces have not been able to carry out effective counterattacks within the country's borders. In 2024, Ukrainian forces gained more territory than the Russian side for only eight days.
As of September 1, Russia occupied 25,577 square miles of Ukrainian territory. Excluding the territories occupied in 2014 during the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of the Russian "little green men" in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, Russia controls 18 percent of Ukraine's 2013 territory.
At the same time, AFP pointed out that Ukrainian forces also advanced at the beginning of August during the offensive in the Kursk region. In two weeks, they managed to occupy 425 square miles of territory. Recently, however, the advance in this direction has slowed; at the moment, Ukrainians occupy between 444 and 502 square miles of the Kursk region.
