these figures which show the rapid advance of the Russian army in recent weeks

The Russian army is gaining ground at an increasingly rapid pace in Ukraine, where the conflict has intensified in recent weeks.

Slow but accelerating progress. The Russian army is advancing inexorably into eastern Ukraine, and at an increasingly rapid pace in recent weeks. According to the independent Russian media Agentsvo, cited by the Reuters news agency, Moscow “set new weekly and monthly records” regarding the share of Ukrainian territory conquered.

Over the last week, the Russian army captured nearly 235 km² in Ukraine, which constitutes a weekly record for the year 2024. In November, Russian forces seized 600 km², adds this media which is based on data from the Ukrainian site DeepState, which provides an interactive map of the front line.

“Russian forces have recently advanced at a significantly faster rate than during all of 2023,” confirms the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), an American think tank.

200 to 300 meters per day

A highly placed source within the Ukrainian General Staff, cited by AFP, indicated last Friday that Russian troops were advancing at “200-300 meters per day” near Kurakhové, one of the Ukrainian localities which could will soon fall into the hands of Moscow.

Near Pokrovsk, a major logistics hub for Ukrainian forces, the situation is more favorable and “has practically not changed over the last two months”, according to this military source.

The Ukrainian forces, which lack recruits and equipment, also have no intention of withdrawing from the Russian region of Kursk, further to the north, of which they still control “around 800 km²” since their incursion in August, reported this same source.

Russia currently controls 18% of Ukrainian territory, including all of Crimea annexed in 2014, just over 80% of Donbass, which includes the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, and more than 70% of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. .

The conflict has intensified again in recent weeks, with the arrival of North Korean troops in support of Russian forces, the authorization by Washington to use long-range missiles on Russian territory and the firing of a intercontinental missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.