RUSSIA IS WINNING THE WAR IN UKRAINE
Myth: Russia is winning the war, capturing vast Ukraine’s territories every single day.
Fact: The claim that Russia is winning the war in Ukraine is misleading when examining territorial control over time. In March 2022 Russia occupied approximately 27% of Ukraine’s territory, totaling about 161,000 square kilometers. By March 2025, Russian control had decreased to approximately 19% of Ukraine’s territory, equating to around 112,000 square kilometers.
Additionally, Russian invaders failed to capture and control even a single major Ukrainian city in three years (the major city Kherson, initially captured in 2022, has been liberated from the Russian invaders the same year).
While it’s true that at this point Russians are making slow and painful progress, it’s rarely estimated in more than a few square kilometers on a daily basis, while the front line spans approximately 1.500 kilometers (930 miles) as of March 2025. If such dynamics persist, the estimations indicate that Kremlin will need much more combat-worthy Russian population to occupy whole Ukraine than is currently available, and considering the scale of Ukraine it will take Russians more than a hundred years to reach their military goals.
The hype around the Russian ‘gains’ in Ukraine originated in the Russian media which present every small Russian achievment as an extraordinary gain. For instance, the city of Bakhmut, captured by the Russian invaders in 2023, which cost Kremlin between 20.000 and 30.000 casualties, is only as big as 7 kilometers across.