War in Ukraine: the Russian army advanced by 725 km2 in November, unheard of since March 2022

While a possible ceasefire appeared for the first time in the mouth of Volodymyr Zelensky, the Russian army continues its operation to nibble away at Ukrainian territory. The Russian army advanced over 725 km2 into Ukrainian territory during the month of November, its largest territorial gain in a month since March 2022 and the first weeks of the war, according to an AFP analysis from data from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Over the entire month of November, Russian forces gained the equivalent of the surface area of ​​Singapore, i.e. more land than during the month of October (610 km2), which already marked an unprecedented advance for more than two and a half years, especially in eastern Ukraine near the city of Pokrovsk. The Donetsk region, in which this important rail and road junction is located, alone concentrates almost 90% of Russian advances in November (629 km2). The Ukrainian army now controls less than a third, compared to more than 40% on January 1, 2024.

Moscow’s forces have claimed numerous towns south and east of Pokrovsk in recent weeks, and have come within 5 km of it. The advance of Kremlin troops has accelerated since the end of spring. Including the month of November, they increased over more than 3,500 km2 in 2024, six times more than for the whole of 2023.

The last time Russia made greater gains in Ukrainian territory in such a short time was in March 2022 (45,426 km2), when their operations extended in the north of the country to the gates of kyiv, in a phase of the conflict where the front line was much more mobile.

18.4% of the territory of pre-2014 Ukraine occupied

Since the start of the war on February 24, 2022, Russia had taken 68,050 km2 of Ukrainian territory as of November 30. With Crimea, annexed in 2014, and the Donbass territories controlled by the separatists before the Russian offensive, Moscow currently controls 18.4% of the territory of Ukraine before 2014. AFP calculations are made at based on files communicated daily by the ISW, which relies on public information disseminated by both camps, and the analysis of satellite images.

In Western countries, “we are starting to talk about a ceasefire as a way to give Ukraine a respite and to give ourselves the opportunity to once again force-feed Ukraine with modern long-range weapons.” », Denounced the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, receiving his Hungarian counterpart, Peter Szijjarto, in Moscow.