Russian advances challenge Ukrainian strategic resilience
In October alone, Russian forces occupied approximately 489 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory. This is the most in all of 2024, as well as since the start of the Russian counteroffensive in October of the previous year, according to the Ukrainian project DeepState, which cites monitoring data.
The DeepState service points out that although Russian territorial gains in the past month were the largest in the past 12 months, factors such as military-industrial potential, troop training, and especially the rational use of human potential are much more significant. The service noted that, unfortunately, this last aspect is becoming their weak point.
Analysts at DeepState emphasize that Russians have learned lessons from previous mistakes and now have more time to train their personnel in their regiments and brigades.
As a result, many personnel allow the enemy to rotate their human resources regularly. The service notes that replacing a brigade that has remained on the front since February 24, 2022, could be a problem for the Ukrainian armed forces.
Lost territories are not the most important
Analysts at DeepState noted that while the amount of lost territory holds significance, it is not the only factor in evaluating an army's effectiveness. They pointed out that although the enemy launched an assault on Novomykhailivka (located in the Pokrovsk district of the Donetsk region) with four full companies in October 2022, such operations now come at a high cost for them.
