Putin: Russia Seized 5,000 sq km in Ukraine This Year
Putin says Russia has captured nearly 5,000 square km in Ukraine this year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russian forces had captured almost 5,000 square km (1,930 square miles) of land in Ukraine in 2025 and that Moscow retained complete strategic initiative on the battlefield.
Russia’s 2025 gains would amount to nearly 1% of Ukraine’s land area, and the country controls nearly 20% in total.
Putin, addressing a meeting with Russian top military commanders on his 73rd birthday, said Ukrainian forces were retreating in all sectors of the front.
“At this time, the Russian armed forces fully hold the strategic initiative,” Putin told the meeting in northwestern Russia near Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg, according to a Kremlin transcript. “This year, we have liberated nearly 5,000 square km of territory – 4,900 – and 212 localities.”
Ukraine’s military in August dismissed Russia’s recent offensives as a failure, with Moscow’s forces failing to capture a single major Ukrainian city this year.
