Putin confirmed Russia«s capture of less than 1% of Ukraine in 2025 0 71

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed reports of the slowed advancement of Russian troops since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In his speech at a meeting with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Russian Federation on Tuesday, October 7, the Russian president reiterated data on the capture of Ukrainian territories in recent months, which Ukrainian observers had previously indicated as a sign of the slowdown of the Russian invasion. The transcript of the Kremlin leader's speech is available on his official website.

In particular, at the meeting, Putin stated that since the beginning of 2025, Russian troops have occupied "almost five thousand square kilometers of territory - 4900 - and 212 settlements."

At the same time, in August, the Ukrainian OSINT project Deep State reported a similar capture of Ukrainian territories in recent months but noted that compared to the overall course of the war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, these numbers appear as minimal successes. According to Deep State, the greatest successes in territorial capture were achieved by Russia since the beginning of aggression against Ukraine - 108,651 sq. km. And from November 12, 2022 (at that time, Russian troops had left the previously captured Kherson) to August 17, 2025, Russian forces captured only 5842 sq km - 0.97 percent of the country's territories, Deep State noted.

Putin demands more Ukrainian territories than Russian forces captured in 2025

The 4900 sq. km of captured territories mentioned by Putin is several times less than the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine - 26,517 sq. km and 27,183 sq. km, respectively. At the same time, the Kremlin leader, according to media reports, demanded in August that Kyiv withdraw the Armed Forces of Ukraine from those territories of Donbas that they control - this was supposed to be a prerequisite for peace negotiations.

In the Donetsk region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine controlled about 30 percent of the territory by the end of August 2025 - just under 8,000 sq. km. Thus, in this single region, Putin demands to hand over more territories to Russia without a fight than Russian forces have been able to capture since the beginning of the year.

Zelensky on Russia's capture of 1%: "This slightly changes the focus"

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in light of reports of Putin's demands for the surrender of Donbas, also noted the lack of significant progress in Russia's offensive actions. He stated this, according to his own words, to U.S. President Donald Trump during a meeting with him at the White House in August. During this meeting in the Oval Office, a map of Ukraine with the territories captured by Russia was displayed, and Zelensky emphasized that he discussed the "real situation" on the battlefield with Trump, as the map with markings without specifying time frames was not sufficiently illustrative.

"In almost four years of full-scale war, they have occupied a third of the Donetsk region. And so I explained that the stories that they will occupy our Donbas by the end of the year are all talk. That is, to occupy our Donbas, they need another four years," the Ukrainian leader explained.

According to Zelensky, Russia will not succeed in achieving progress in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions - the Ukrainian president promised that ultimately the Armed Forces of Ukraine will manage to push the enemy out of these territories. "For example, there are clear figures that in a thousand days, less than 1% of our territory was occupied by the Russians. People think - 20% or 18%, but it is less than 1%. This slightly changes the focus," Zelensky explained after the meeting with Trump in August.