The total area of Russian occupation of Ukraine last week, from February 23 to March 2, decreased for the first time since 2022, according to maps from the OSINT project of DeepState.
Despite the enemy continuing its offensive in Donetsk region on several fronts simultaneously, it captured a total of only 14.68 square kilometers in the past week. Meanwhile, in Oleksandrivka direction along the administrative border of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhia regions, thanks to the actions of the Defense Forces, the area of enemy occupation decreased by 30.89 square kilometers in the past week.
The project does not mention the liberation of specific settlements in Oleksandrivka axis direction, only the transition of the corresponding territories to the penetration zone. At the same time, the penetration zone has been expanded in both directions—a total of 47.66 square kilometers in this single direction.
In Pokrovsk direction of Donetsk region, the enemy advanced only 1.51 square kilometers in the past week (the penetration zone has shrunk by 0.76 square kilometers). In the previous weeks of February, the enemy advanced 16-24 kilometers in this direction weekly, indicating that the Defense Forces have almost completely halted the enemy’s advance in Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad agglomeration.
In Chasiv-Yar, Kostiantynivka, and Siversk directions in the east and north of Donetsk region, the enemy’s advance slowed by almost a third to 9.91 square kilometers (from 14.02 square kilometers the week before last), but remained within the typical range for these directions since last year. In the neighboring Lyman direction, the enemy’s advance also slowed by a third (from 4.66 square kilometers to 3.26 square kilometers). The penetration zone in these directions began to shrink after a long period of growth, decreasing by more than 9 square kilometers in total over the past week.
There were no changes on other front lines last week.
Thus, the total area of occupied Ukrainian territory decreased by 16.21 square kilometers over the week, while the penetration zone increased by 38.25 square kilometers.
Last week, the occupiers lost an average of 2.3 square kilometers daily, while the penetration zone increased by an average of 5.5 square kilometers daily.
Last week, the occupiers increased their area of control by an average of 1.7 square kilometers per day.
