Russian advances in Ukraine slow again in February: report

TOPSHOT - Tetiana reacts as she pays tribute on the birthday day of her son Sergiy Voityshyn, who was killed in 2024 fighting Russian troops in the Donetsk region, at a makeshift memorial for the fallen Ukrainian and foreign fighters on the Independence Square in Kyiv on March 1, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on February 28, 2025, told US' President Donald Trump there should be "no compromises" with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the parties negotiate to end the war after Moscow's invasion. (Photo by Roman PILIPEY / AFP)
  • Russian forces advanced less on Ukrainian territory in February than in the preceding months
  • Moscow advanced by 389 square kilometers in February

PARIS: Russian forces advanced less on Ukrainian territory in February than in the preceding months, according to an AFP analysis of US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) data.
Moscow advanced by 389 square kilometers (150 square miles) in February after advances of 431 square kilometers in January and 476 square kilometers in December 2024, the data showed.
It was well below the peak of 725 square kilometers made in November, after Russian forces embarked on major advances on the front line starting in mid-2024.
The Russian army’s gains over the past year, from March 2024 to February 2025, came to 4,500 square kilometers, or 0.75 percent of Ukrainian territory as it stood before the Russian offensives including in the Crimea peninsula and the eastern Donbass region.
That is nearly 20 times more than over the previous 12 months — Russia had gained just 231 square kilometers between March 2023 and February 2024.
During that period Ukraine took 1,440 square kilometers of Russian territory, but over the past year it retook just 52 square kilometers.
In August 2024, a major Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region saw it gain around 1,300 square kilometers in two weeks, but the Ukrainian zone of operation then was reduced month by month.
It decreased from 1,171 square kilometers in late August to 483 square kilometers by the end of last year, falling to 407 square kilometers by February 28, 2025.
AFP’s count is based on data provided on a daily basis by the ISW, which gives information provided by both sides as well as analyzes of satellite imagery.