Russian forces make significant gains in Donetsk offensive

In August, the Russian army captured the most Ukrainian territory since October 2022, reported AFP after analyzing data collected by the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

In August, Russian forces advanced, gaining 16 square kilometres each day, mostly in the Donetsk region, according to AFP. As noted, the main offensive aims to capture Pokrovsk, an important logistical hub for the Ukrainians. On Sunday, the aggressor's forces were slightly over 6 kilometres from this city.

AFP recalled that the last time Moscow gained so much territory in a month was in October 2022. It was a response to the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region.

In 2023, Russia captured an additional 1,730 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory. This is already three times more than in 2022 when Ukrainian counter-offensives proved effective in reclaiming territory occupied by the enemy.

In recent months, Ukrainian forces have not been able to carry out effective counterattacks within the country's borders. So far in 2023, Ukrainian forces gained more territory than the Russian side for only eight days.

As of September 1, Russia occupied 66,243 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory. Not counting the territories occupied in 2014 during the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of the Russian "little green men" in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, Russia controls 18 percent of Ukraine's 2013 territory.

At the same time, AFP pointed out that Ukrainian forces also advanced at the beginning of August during the offensive in the Kursk region. In two weeks, they managed to occupy 1,101 square kilometres of territory. Recently, however, the advance in this direction has slowed; at the moment, Ukrainians occupy between 1,150 and 1,300 square kilometres of the Kursk region.