Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia in maps — latest updates

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On February 24 2022, the world awoke to news that Russian tanks had rolled into Ukraine from the east and north. More than a year later, tens of thousands of casualties have been reported on both sides and millions of refugees from Ukraine have been recorded across Europe.

This page is regularly updated with the latest maps, charts, videos and satellite imagery showing military, environmental and humanitarian aspects of the war in Ukraine.

Latest on Ukraine’s counteroffensive

Ukraine stepped up attacks against arms depots and other targets deep inside Russian-occupied territory on Sunday, supporting a counteroffensive that has made modest gains against heavily fortified Russian frontline positions.

Ukrainian forces claim to have liberated several villages, including a number in the Donetsk region, since the counteroffensive began this month.

Latest on the national picture

A key bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula to the Kherson region was hit early on Thursday by a Ukrainian missile strike, said Moscow-installed officials in both Russian-occupied areas.

The Chongar bridge’s road surface was damaged, said Vladimir Saldo, Russia’s installed governor for southern parts of the Kherson region, in a Telegram post that included photos of a gaping hole in the bridge.

Other maps and charts from the war

June 2023: Destruction of Kakhovka dam

Following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine on June 6, flood waters devastated towns and villages downstream, with dozens of people perishing in the disaster amid patchy evacuation efforts in Russian-controlled territories. The flood also narrowed Ukraine’s attack options in its counteroffensive, which got under way in early June.

May 2023: Russian fortifications

Ukraine’s months-long preparation for its summer counteroffensive to try to wrest back occupied territory allowed Russia to fortify its positions along the almost 1,000km front line.

Satellite images reviewed by the Financial Times and analysed by military experts revealed a multi-layered Russian network of anti-tank ditches, mazes of trenches, concrete “dragon’s teeth” barricades, steel “hedgehog” obstacles, spools of razor wire and minefields.

May 2023: Battle for Bakhmut

On May 21, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin hailed his first major victory since the early days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine claiming that Russian forces had captured the eastern city of Bakhmut, despite Kyiv insisting the battle “was not over”.

Putin said the Wagner paramilitary group had seized the Ukrainian city with help from Russia’s armed forces after months of bloody fighting that had caused more than 100,000 casualties and reduced the city to ruins.

Earlier in the year, satellite images from the Vuhledar area, south of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, revealed the extent of damage in areas that had suffered intense artillery shelling.

September-November 2022: Ukraine retakes Kherson

A September counteroffensive led to Ukraine liberating 3,000 sq km of territory in just six days — its biggest victory since it pushed Russian troops back from Kyiv in March.

Ukraine’s forces continued to push east, capturing the transport hub of Lyman, near the north-eastern edge of the Donetsk province, which it wrestled from Russian control on October 1.

The hard-fought victory came after nearly three weeks of battle and set the stage for a Ukrainian advance towards Svatove, a logistics centre for Russia after its troops lost the Kharkiv region in the lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Ukrainian forces advanced into Kherson on November 11 after Russia said its forces had completed their withdrawal from the southern city, sealing one of the biggest setbacks to Putin’s invasion.

Kyiv’s progress and Moscow’s chaotic retreat across the Dnipro river under Ukrainian artillery fire meant Russia surrendered the only provincial capital it had captured in the war, as well as ceding strategic positions.

March 2022: Russia fails to capture Kyiv

The Russians were thwarted in Kyiv by a combination of factors, including geography, the attackers’ blundering and modern arms, as well as Ukraine’s ingenuity with smartphones and pieces of foam mat.