Maps Show Where Russia Gained, Lost Territory in Ukraine War

Ukraine gained an important victory this week in its counteroffensive against Russian forces when it liberated the tactically important village of Urozhaine, but recent maps show significant portions of the country still remain under Moscow’s control.

The liberation of Urozhaine on Wednesday could have a large impact on Moscow’s forces given the key role the village played in Russia’s supply lines. In an assessment last weekend prior to Ukraine liberating Urozhaine, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank, wrote that a Kyiv victory in the settlement could also further contribute to the Russian military‘s already low morale.

ISW has thoroughly documented multiple stages of the conflict since its start and frequently updates a map of Ukraine that documents which territory is controlled by Russia. Its most recent maps show Moscow maintains much of its hold in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Russia has not had much success in attempted advancements in recent weeks, and much of the land it still holds in Ukraine was won during the early stages of the war Russian President Vladimir Putin launched on February 24, 2022.

But Ukraine has also struggled somewhat in its ongoing counteroffensive. During the approximately two months of the military operation, Kyiv has faced criticism for the lack of a significant breakthrough on Russia’s defensive lines in what has been characterized as a costly effort.

The ISW on Thursday night also posted a message on X, formerly known as Twitter, that combined four different maps that assessed what territory Russia still holds.

Early into the war, Putin’s soldiers seized portions of the area around the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine, as well as the Kharkiv region. To the south, Russia took the port city of Mariupol by April after first occupying Kherson Oblast.

However, Ukraine began launching successful counterattacks that saw it take back over 4,600 square miles of territory between September 6 and October 2. This included the Kharkiv region, and later Ukraine was able to regain control of the city of Kherson in November.

By the end of 2022, Ukraine had reclaimed approximately 54 percent of the land that Russia had captured during the war, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data provided by the ISW.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for comment.

As ISW’s latest maps show, Putin’s military forces still control most of the Luhansk region, as well as large portions of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed from Ukraine in 2014, also still remains under Russia despite increased attacks from Kyiv in recent months.

On Friday, Reuters wrote that—in total—Russia currently “controls nearly a fifth of Ukraine.”

Despite maintaining its grasp on those areas, Moscow suffered blows this week. In its Thursday assessment, the ISW wrote “Russian forces have dedicated significant effort, resources, and personnel to hold settlements such as Robotyne and Urozhaine, and recent Ukrainian advances in these areas are therefore likely reflective of a wider degradation of defending Russian forces.”

The think tank added that Putin’s military continues to “lack significant operational reserves, and the intense Russian effort to hold these settlements instead of withdrawing their forces means that Ukrainian forces have likely had to thoroughly degrade Russian units before advancing.”