Ukraine’s military command on Tuesday shared details of how much Russian territory its forces have seized since invading the Kursk region two weeks ago, more than the area Russian forces have seized in Ukraine since the start of the year, according to available data.
Ukrainian military commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Tuesday that his forces now control about 1,263 square kilometers (about 488 square miles) of Russian territory in Kursk and 93 settlements within that area.
Syrsky said Ukrainian forces had advanced 28 to 35 kilometers (about 17 to 22 miles) deep into Kursk, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. Government media translation From his statements to lawmakers.
On August 6, Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, and a week later, Syrsky said his forces had captured about 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) and 74 settlements. Although Kyiv’s advance slowed in the second week of the invasion, its forces continued to seize territory and settlements.
Destroyed Russian tanks lie on the side of the road near Sudzha, in the Kursk region, on August 16. Associated Press photo
Business Insider could not independently verify Syrskiy’s latest figures. However, his assessment suggests that Ukrainian gains from two weeks of fighting in Kursk have already surpassed the total amount of territory Russia has seized since the start of the year, according to territorial gains estimated by analysts.
By Aug. 11, Russian forces had occupied about 109,338 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in total, according to Mitch Belcher, a geospatial analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, which tracks battlefield movements and developments.
That figure includes 1,175 square kilometers that Russia captured in 2024, he told Business Insider last week.
By Tuesday, Russian forces had occupied an estimated 43,000 square miles (109,416 square kilometers) in Ukraine, George Barros, a geospatial intelligence team leader and Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, told Business Insider.
That means Russia has seized 78 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in the days since August 11, bringing the total area it has seized over the year to 1,253 square kilometers. That’s slightly smaller than the area Ukraine says it has seized in Kursk in the past two weeks.
Ukrainian soldiers ride a military vehicle carrying Russian prisoners of war in the back of a truck near the Russian border in Ukraine’s Sumy region on August 13. REUTERS/Vyacheslav Ratinsky/File Photo
The sudden Ukrainian invasion of Russian territory caught Moscow and Kyiv’s international allies, including the United States, by surprise, as they were not aware of the operation in advance.
Moscow is still trying to respond to the incursion – the largest attack by a foreign enemy on Russian territory since World War II – two weeks later, and has redirected some units from operations in and around Ukraine to the Kursk region.
In recent days, the Ukrainian military has released footage showing airstrikes on a number of bridges and key Russian control centers in Kursk, suggesting that Kyiv is including air power in what appears to be a combined arms operation inside Russia.
Syrsky said the operation in Kursk aims to create a “security zone” and prevent Russia from being able to carry out attacks against Ukraine from within the region, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. State-owned media organization Ukraineform.
These stated goals are consistent with those shared by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who He said this on Sunday. That the Kursk offensive was intended to “create a buffer zone” on Russian territory.