On April 21, Russia said it had controlled more than 1,700km2 of Ukrainian territory since the beginning of the year and was attacking the Donbas region.
Russian Army Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov said that Russian forces have taken control of a total of 80 residential areas. He also said units are approaching the defense line called the "fortune belt" in Donetsk, including the cities of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka.
According to him, the Russian army is about 7-12km from Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, and has also engaged in fighting in some areas of Kostiantynivka.
Russia also announced that it is attacking Sumy in the north and Kharkiv in the northeast to create a "security zone". According to estimates from Russia, the country's army currently controls about 90% of Donbas, 75% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and part of Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. The Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014, is also under Russian control.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian side gave other figures. Ukrainian Army Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Kiev forces regained nearly 50km2 of territory in March. Some maps show that Russia controls about 16,793km2, equivalent to 19.35% of territory, and the offensive momentum has slowed down this year.
Data from both sides has not been independently verified. The conflict is still developing complicatedly with continuous waves of fighting.
