Visualize the advance of the Ukrainian army in Russia on a map

This is the first incursion into Russian territory since World War II, and Moscow did not see it coming. On Tuesday, August 6, several thousand Ukrainian soldiers took advantage of “weaknesses” in the border defence to seize several towns, including the Russian town of Soudja, which before the start of the war had 5,000 inhabitants. This surprise offensive shows Ukraine’s opportunism, taking advantage of the small number of defenders in this area, which Moscow had begun clearing of mines in preparation for a future offensive.

During the first two weeks of the offensive, kyiv seized between 600 and 700 square kilometers of territory, i.e. as much as Moscow had managed to nibble away between January and July 2024. The Ukrainian presidency presents this offensive as “a plan for victory,” according to Volodymyr Zelensky, who believes that“It is necessary to be in a position of strength” before opening a “dialogue” with Moscow to end the war.

In addition to the weekly cartographic monitoring of the situation at the front since February 2022, the map below shows the Ukrainian incursion and its evolution since the beginning of August in the border regions of Sumy, in Ukraine, and Kursk, in Russia.