The Armed Forces of Ukraine have already liberated more than half of the territories that Russia seized after 24 February 2022, Militarnyy reports citing open-source OSINT intelligence.
According to the calculations of OSINT researcher DefMon, who has been mapping combat operations in Ukraine since the first days of the war, after clearing the right bank of the Dnipro River, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have liberated 52.5% of the territories occupied since February 2022 - almost 78 thousand square kilometres.
At the same time, almost 71 square kilometres of the territories captured after 24 February remain under Russian occupation. These territories include several settlements of the Mykolayiv Region (villages of the Ochakiv community on the Kinburn Spit), the left-bank part of Kherson Region, the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhya Region, some settlements of Kharkiv Region and the territory of Donbas.
In total, up to 120 thousand square kilometres including ORDLO (occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions behind the demarcation line until 24 February) and Crimea remain under Russian occupation. This is almost 20% of the territory of Ukraine.
The researcher notes that at the peak of the occupational campaign, the Russians managed to capture almost 200 thousand square kilometres (including ORDLO and Crimea). In general, the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated 39% of all occupied territories during the counter-offensive.
It is not easy to document the real situation based on open data, so these calculations can be quite approximate, however, they do give a general picture.
The key stages of the liberation of the territory of Ukraine were:
- ousting the Russians from under Mykolaiv;
- withdrawal of the Russian Armed Forces under the threat of defeat and encirclement from Kyiv, as well as the entire territory of Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions;
- the battle for Kharkiv was won; Russians were driven out of Zmeinyy Island;
- Balakliysk-Kupyansk offensive;
- liberation of Sviatohirsk and Lyman and the offensive on Svatove-Kreminna;
- liberation of Kherson.
Ukrainian Armed Forces are currently conducting offensive actions in Luhansk Region. Recently, the UAF liberated the village of Makiyivka.