The Russian army made its biggest advance in Ukraine in a year in November, AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed.
Over the month, Russia captured 701 square kilometres (270 square miles), the second-largest territorial advance of the war after that of November 2024 — not taking into account the initial months of the invasion when the front line was highly mobile.
By the end of November, the Russian army controlled, fully or partially, 19.3 percent of Ukrainian territory, according to the analysis of data from ISW, which works with the Critical Threats Project.
This includes areas that Kyiv and military analysts say are controlled by Russia, as well as those claimed by Moscow’s army.
Before Moscow’s February 2022 invasion, some seven percent of Ukraine’s land — Crimea and areas in the Donbas region in the east — had been under Russian control.
The November advances come as the month has also seen a diplomatic push to end the conflict, with the US negotiating with both countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated his demands last week that Ukraine give up territory — including land that Moscow does not occupy — for any deal to be possible.
Since the start of 2025, Russia has captured nearly 5,400 square kilometres of territory in Ukraine, almost 2,000 square kilometres more than in the same period the previous year.
In November, however, Russian progress continued to slow in the Donetsk region — the epicentre of the fighting between the two sides.
Moscow gained some 130 square kilometres last month, compared to more than double that on average in other months of the year, and now controls more than 81 percent of the region.
Moscow’s troops are currently fighting there to capture the city of Pokrovsk, a strategically-located hub whose loss would significantly affect Ukrainian defences and logistics.
But it was in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia that Russian forces made the most progress in November, gaining 272 square kilometres, as much as in the previous four months combined, while in the Dnipropetrovsk region they captured almost 200 square kilometres.
In September 2022, Russia claimed to have officially annexed the Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Lugansk and Kherson regions, even though it did not fully militarily control all of them.
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