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Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia on maps: latest updates
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On February 24, 2022, the world woke up to the news that Russian tanks had entered Ukraine.
This page is regularly updated with the latest maps, charts, videos and satellite images showing military, environmental and humanitarian aspects of the war in Ukraine.
Most recent situation
Russia has advanced 10km from the border with Ukraine towards the country’s second largest city, Kharkiv.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces had reached the first of three defensive lines protecting the city after a week-long offensive, but said the advance was now blocked. “Today, our defense forces stabilized the Russians where they are located,” Zelenskyy said after visiting Kharkiv on Thursday.
Kharkiv has been the target of a new Russian offensive, in part aimed at extracting resources from the eastern Donetsk region. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow “currently has no plans to take Kharkiv,” but added that Russian troops “advance daily.”
“We understand that there will be difficult battles ahead and the enemy is preparing for that,” said General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top commander.
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Russia may be trying to push Ukrainian forces deeper into its own country, to get them out of reach of the Russian city of Belgorod, just 30 kilometers north of the border with Ukraine, which has been under increasing artillery fire in recent years. months.
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Progress of Ukraine’s counteroffensive
With progress slow in its counteroffensive and Russia showing no signs of giving up, Ukraine faces a protracted war that will require the long-term support of allies – who are also focused on Israel-Hamas War.
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Other maps and charts of the war
June 2023: Destruction of the Kakhovka dam
Following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine on June 6, floods devastated towns and villages downstream, with dozens of people dying in the disaster amid irregular evacuation efforts in Russian-controlled territories. The flooding also reduced Ukraine’s attacking options in its counteroffensive, which began in early June.
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May 2023: Russian fortifications
Ukraine’s months-long preparation for its summer counteroffensive to try to reclaim occupied territory has allowed Russia to strengthen its positions along the nearly 1,000-kilometer front line.
Satellite images reviewed by the Financial Times and analyzed by military experts revealed a multi-layered Russian network of anti-tank ditches, mazes of trenches, concrete “dragon’s teeth” barricades, steel “hedgehog” obstacles, spools of barbed wire and minefields.
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May 2023: Battle for Bakhmut
On May 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed his first major victory since the early days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, claiming that Russian forces had captured the eastern city of Bakhmut, despite Kiev insisting that the The battle is “not over”.
Putin said the Wagner paramilitary group took the Ukrainian city with the help of Russian armed forces after months of bloody fighting that claimed more than 100,000 lives and reduced the city to ruins.
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Earlier this year, satellite images of the Vuhledar area, south of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, revealed the extent of damage in areas that had suffered intense artillery shelling.
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September-November 2022: Ukraine retakes Kherson
A counter-offensive saw Ukraine liberate 3,000 square kilometers of territory in just six days, its biggest victory since expelling Russian troops from Kiev in March.
Ukrainian forces continued to advance east, capturing the Lyman Transportation Centernear the far northeast of Donetsk province, which it withdrew from Russian control on October 1.
The hard-fought victory came after nearly three weeks of battle and set the stage for a Ukrainian advance toward Svatove, a logistics hub for Russia, after its troops lost the Kharkiv region in the lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Ukrainian forces advanced into Kherson on November 11 after Russia said its forces had completed their withdrawal from the southern city, sealing one of the biggest setbacks to Putin’s invasion.
Kiev’s progress and Moscow’s chaotic retreat across the Dnipro River under Ukrainian artillery fire meant that Russia surrendered the only provincial capital it captured in the war, as well as giving up strategic positions.
March 2022: Russia fails to capture Kiev
The Russians were thwarted in Kiev by a combination of factors, including geography, the attackers’ mistakes and modern weapons, as well as Ukraine’s ingenuity with smartphones and pieces of foam mat.
The refugee crisis
The number of Ukrainians fleeing the conflict has made this one of the largest refugee crises in modern history.
Sources: Institute for the Study of WarRochan Consulting, FT research.
Cartography and development by Steve Bernardo, Chris Campbell, Caitlin Gilbert, Cleve Jones, Emma Lewis, Joanna S Kao, Apprentice Sam, Ændra Rininslândia, Niko Kommenda, Alan Smith, Martin Stabe, Neggeen Sadid, Liz Faunce It is Dan Clark.
Based on reports from Roman Olearchyk, Christopher Miller, Ben Hall, Max Seddon, John Paul Rathbone, John Reed, Guy Chazan, Henry Foy, Mehul Srivastava, Polina Ivanova It is Tim Judah.