Twelve Years of War in One Map
Russia's war on Ukraine did not begin in 2022. In February 2014, days after the Euromaidan shootings in Kyiv, Russian forces seized Crimea, and Russia annexed the peninsula in March. That spring Russian-backed militants took Sloviansk and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. On 24 February 2022 Russia launched a full-scale invasion on several fronts at once.
This map shows who held which territory from February 2014 to October 2026. It follows the war in Donbas, the invasion and the Russian retreat from the north in 2022, the slow war of attrition that followed, and Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region in 2024–25, the one time Ukrainian forces held Russian territory.
2014–2021: Crimea and the War in Donbas
After Crimea, fighting spread through Donbas. By June 2014 separatists held Sloviansk and Donetsk; Ukraine's summer offensive pushed them back, peaking in August 2014. MH17 was shot down over Donbas on 17 July 2014. At the end of August Russian regular troops intervened and defeated Ukrainian forces at Ilovaisk, and the Minsk I agreement of September 2014 set a first line of contact. Donetsk airport fell in January 2015, and after the battle of Debaltseve in February 2015 the Minsk II line froze the front for seven years.
2022: Invasion, Retreat and Counteroffensives
On 24 February 2022 Russian forces attacked from Belarus towards Kyiv and Chernihiv, from Russia towards Sumy and Kharkiv, from Donbas, and from Crimea into the south. Kherson fell on 2 March, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was seized and Mariupol was encircled. Russian-held territory peaked in late March 2022. Russia then withdrew from the north: by early April the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions were free again, and the massacre in Bucha came to light.
Russia concentrated on the east. Mariupol fell in May 2022, and Russia took the rest of Luhansk oblast by early July. In September Ukraine's Kharkiv counteroffensive liberated Balakliia, Izium and Kupiansk within days, and Lyman followed in October. On 11 November 2022 Ukrainian troops entered Kherson city, and Russia withdrew to the left bank of the Dnipro.
2023–2026: A War of Attrition
After 2022 the front moved slowly. Russia took Soledar in January 2023 and Bakhmut in May. Ukraine's summer counteroffensive in Zaporizhzhia peaked at Robotyne in August 2023. Avdiivka fell in February 2024, Russia pushed across the border north of Kharkiv in May 2024, and its forces ground towards Pokrovsk. Vuhledar fell in October 2024 and Kurakhove in January 2025. In mid-2025 Russian troops entered Dnipropetrovsk oblast.
In 2026 the front kept shifting in both directions. Ukraine reported Kupiansk cleared in January. Russia took Huliaipole in February, and the fall of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad was confirmed the same month. A Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south regained ground from February. A short truce and a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange in May did not lead to a ceasefire. Through the summer the battle for Kostiantynivka continued, and in September Ukraine made gains near Lyman. The map ends with the front as it stood on 7 October 2026.
The Kursk Incursion
On 6 August 2024 Ukrainian forces crossed into Russia's Kursk oblast. They took the town of Sudzha within a week and by late August held roughly 1,000 km² of Russian territory. Russia counterattacked from September 2024, with North Korean troops in the fighting by November. The salient shrank through early 2025, Ukraine left Sudzha in March, and by late April 2025 the incursion was over. On the map this area is light blue.
How to Read the Map
- Red is Russia and blue is Ukraine.
- Light red is Russian-occupied Ukraine, including Crimea and the parts of Donbas held since 2014.
- Light blue is Ukrainian-held Russia during the Kursk incursion of 2024–25.
- Small dots are strikes: orange for Russian strikes and blue for Ukrainian strikes.
- Larger markers show battles, captures, liberations, massacres, treaties and peace talks.
- A bar at the top shows rough estimates of killed and wounded on each side over time.
How the Map Was Made
For 2022 to mid-2024 the map uses VIINA (Zhukov, ODbL), a dataset of territorial control in Ukraine, together with archived DeepStateMap control maps from April 2022. From July 2024 it uses DeepStateMap data via cyterat/deepstate-map-data. The 2014–2015 front lines were rebuilt from lists of which side held which settlements on dated maps of the war in Donbas. The Kursk area is a schematic outline based on reported village control. Events come from Wikipedia. Borders are simplified, and Ukrainian place names are used throughout.
Chronological Timeline
- February 2014 — Euromaidan shootings in Kyiv; Russia seizes Crimea
- March 2014 — Russia annexes Crimea
- April–June 2014 — Russian-backed militants take Sloviansk and Donetsk
- 17 July 2014 — MH17 shot down over Donbas
- August–September 2014 — Battle of Ilovaisk; Minsk I agreement
- January–February 2015 — Donetsk airport and Debaltseve fall; Minsk II agreement
- 24 February 2022 — Full-scale Russian invasion
- March 2022 — Kherson falls; Mariupol encircled; furthest Russian advance
- April 2022 — Russia retreats from the Kyiv region; Bucha massacre revealed
- May 2022 — Mariupol falls
- September 2022 — Kharkiv counteroffensive; Izium and Kupiansk liberated
- 11 November 2022 — Kherson city liberated
- May 2023 — Bakhmut falls
- June 2023 — Kakhovka dam destroyed; Ukrainian counteroffensive in Zaporizhzhia
- February 2024 — Avdiivka falls
- August 2024 — Ukraine's Kursk incursion; Sudzha taken
- October 2024 — Vuhledar falls
- January 2025 — Kurakhove falls
- March–April 2025 — Russia retakes Sudzha; the Kursk incursion ends
- August 2025 — Alaska summit; no ceasefire
- December 2025 — Siversk falls
- February 2026 — Huliaipole, Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad fall; Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south
- May 2026 — Truce and 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange
- October 2026 — The front today
Follow the front through twelve years, pause on any date and click markers and strike dots for details. You can embed the map on your own website as an interactive widget or export it as an animated GIF.
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