Since the start of Jan. to the end of Apr., THIS YEAR, Russia gained a total of 628 miles into Ukraine

[bigtree]

The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline
Q: "Does Putin have a strong hand tomorrow?"

Trump: "If I weren't president, in my opinion, he would much rather take over all of Ukraine. But I am president, and he's not going to mess around with me."

___Trump has said both sides will be expected to cede territory in negotiations. Kyiv says it is against its constitution to give away Ukrainian land to Russia and Moscow has been unbending during months of peace talks.

Currently, Moscow controls around one-fifth of territory that is internationally recognized as part of Ukraine. This includes Crimea, the peninsula to the south of mainland Ukraine, which was annex by Moscow in 2014.

Since the start of January to the end of April this year, Russia gained a total of 1,627 square kilometers, or 628 square miles, in Ukraine and in its own Kursk region, where it batted back Ukraine's cross-border incursion, the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said in a report about the front lines in May.

Russian forces have spent roughly a year inching their way toward the Donetsk city of Pokrovsk, the city itself facing heavy bombardment. In recent months, Moscow has moved to encircle the settlement, a major logistics hub for Ukrainian troops.

https://www.newsweek.com/satellite-imagery-ukraine-territory-russia-alaska-talks-donald-trump-vladimir-putin-2113484

[Celerity]

1. They've gained 628 square miles of territory, not went 628 miles into Ukraine. nt

[edhopper]

2. A good sumary here

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0l0k4389g2o

[gab13by13]

3. The fog of war

Newsweek isn't a go to source for me regarding Ukraine.

There is a big right wing push going on right now to make it look like Russia is winning the war.

[Wiz Imp]

4. Title is very misleading. it's not 628 miles, it's 628 SQUARE miles

628 square miles would be an area just slightly larger than 25 miles by 25 miles.
Total area of Ukraine is 233,062 square miles, so 628 square miles is less than 0.3% of Ukraine's total land. In other words, Russia effectively gained no ground between January and April of this year.

[-misanthroptimist]

6. Absolutely correct.

I had some fun with statistics in my post below.

[-misanthroptimist]

5. Looks like it only cost them around 200k casualities!

That works out to about 318 casualities per sq.mi. At that rate, Russia would have to absorb over 74 million casualities to take all of Ukraine.

I don't think that they can do it.

[Wounded Bear]

7. Yeah, it's like WWI being fought with 21st Century weapons...nt