Maps Shows Where Russia Has Gained Ground in Ukraine

Russian forces made several confirmed advances along the front lines in Ukraine this week as the 22-month-old war rages on, according to maps compiled by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S. think tank.

The assessment comes as Moscow's Defense Ministry declared victory for its main goal in 2023. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that the Kremlin's objective was to "thwart the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian armed forces" and that the task was "successfully completed." Kyiv launched its counteroffensive in June, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this month that the campaign "did not achieve the desired results."

As winter weather settles into Ukraine, a new phase of the war has begun, one in which Russia is seeing increasing momentum as Kyiv continues to try to shove Russia out of occupied territories.

According to the ISW's assessment published Tuesday, Russian forces gained ground in the Luhansk, Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions between Sunday and Tuesday. Maps show that Russia made marginal advances north of Kupyansk as of Sunday, according to geolocated footage. The eastern Ukrainian city, which sits along the front lines between the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions, was occupied by Russia after the invasion on February 24, 2022, before being liberated by Ukraine roughly six months later.

Geolocated footage also showed Russian advances east of Terny, a Ukrainian village in the Donetsk region that sits near the Luhansk front line. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Facebook update on Wednesday that its troops had repelled at least eight Russian attacks in the Kupyansk direction.

In the Donetsk region, Russian forces claimed to have made marginal advances west and southwest of the city of Bakhmut, although the ISW had not found any evidence to support the claims. The ISW reported Moscow-led attacks on Monday near the village of Vesele, just northeast of Bakhmut, but its forces did not advance.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian offensive pushes toward the city of Horlivka were unsuccessful Monday and Tuesday, according to Russian sources cited by ISW. Geolocated footage also showed Russia made confirmed but marginal advances surrounding the town of Avdiivka, an eastern industrial Ukrainian town that has been the focal point of the war for several weeks. Dmytro Lazutkin, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian 47th Mechanized Brigade, said Tuesday that the situation around Avdiivka was "not getting any easier" but that advances by Russia are made "very, very poorly."

"There are practically no advances anywhere, and if there are, they are literally hundreds of meters, which are later repelled or are covered by our artillery," Lazutkin told Ukrainian broadcaster Suspline News.

Perhaps Russia's greatest advances this week were made in the city of Marinka, where geolocated footage viewed by the ISW, as well as statements from Ukrainian and Russian officials, suggests that Moscow has taken control of nearly the entire Donetsk city.

Russia's Defense Ministry and President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in Marinka on Monday. Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi said a day later that Russia had effectively destroyed the city and that part of Kyiv's forces along the frontlines had withdrawn, although fighting continues in Marinka's outskirts.

The ISW noted in its assessment that Russia's likely capture of Marinka does not provide Russia "any operationally significant advance" unless Moscow has "dramatically improved their ability to conduct rapid mechanized forward movement, which they show no signs of having done."

"A small and completely destroyed settlement does not offer Russian forces a secure operational foothold from which to launch further offensive operations," the think tank wrote.

Russian forces also made confirmed advances in southern Ukraine along the Zaporizhzhia front. Geolocated footage published Monday and Tuesday showed Moscow's troops advance northwest of the city of Robotyne and Russian sources claimed additional advances south of Kamianske, although the ISW did not confirm the claim.

Ukraine's Armed Forces reported that its defenses repelled nine attacks from Russia along the western front in the Zaporizhzhia region Wednesday.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry and Ukrainian Ministry of Defense for comment.

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