The Russian army advanced 478 square kilometers (185 square miles) into Ukrainian territory in October, a record since March 2022 in the first weeks of the war, according to an AFP analysis on Monday of data from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
By October 27, Russian forces had gained more territory than in August and September 2024 (477 and 459 square kilometers, respectively) following major shifts on the front line, in particular in eastern Ukraine around the city of Pokrovsk.
Two-thirds of the Russian gains, or 324 square kilometers (125 square miles), were in the eastern Donetsk region.
Russian forces are now only several kilometers from Pokrovsk, which they are approaching from the south and east.
The advances underscore the difficulties faced by the Ukrainian army in the war-battered country’s east, where it faces better-armed Russian troops who outnumber Kyiv’s forces.
Moscow’s army is also gaining territory at the north of the front, having seized more than 40 square kilometers (15.4 square miles) near Kupiansk.
Captured by Russian troops in the early stages of the war, that town was then retaken by Ukraine in a September 2022 counteroffensive.
The last time that Russia made such advances was in March 2022, when they marched towards the capital Kyiv in the early stages of the war.
At that time, the frontline was far more fluid than it is today.
Over the course of 2023, Russian forces seized just 584 square kilometers (225.4 square miles) of Ukrainian territory.
Yet since January 1, 2024 they have already taken more than 2,660 square kilometers (1,027 square miles), an area slightly bigger than the size of Moscow.
From the start of the war on February 24, 2022 up to October 27, 2024 Russia had taken 67,192 square kilometers (25,943 square miles) of Kyiv’s land.
Along with the Crimea peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, and the areas of eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists before the February offensive, Russia currently controls 18.2 percent of Ukraine’s 2013 territory.
AFP‘s analysis is based on data released on a daily basis by the ISW, which is derived from information published by the two warring sides and satellite imagery.