Posted on 02/17/2026 9:43:31 AM PST by Grzegorz 246
Ukrainian forces managed to liberate over 200 square kilometers of territory from the Russian troops last week, marking their most successful breakthrough in 2.5 years, AFP reports.
According to the outlet, these gains are confirmed by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Between February 11 and 15, Ukrainian troops recaptured 201 square kilometers from Russian forces.
AFP reports that Ukrainian soldiers took advantage of disruptions in Russian access to Starlink terminals.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsukraine.rbc.ua ...
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Very well written.
Ukraine lost this war years ago. Their government should be overthrown.
Sure … lol.
🇷🇺🇺🇦🇬🇧 UK’s delegation UNEXPECTEDLY arrived at the place of negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the US
The delegation was reportedly led by Starmer’s security adviser, Jonathan Powell
Did they attempt to interfere in the negotiation process, just as they did in 2022?
Russia failed in their attempt to capture Kiev years ago. Their government should be overthrown.
Why would Russia lose its willingness to settle? After all, Ukraine is taking everything back! And the Russian economy is failing! Lol.
Hey, maybe they should vote on it?
AFP reports.
Not that this is necessarily untrue but given their past record of inaccurate or fairytale reporting, I wouldn’t lay much stake in it.
1.) Russia is doing a slow roll because they have ZERO interest in taking the nationalist areas of Ukraine, this is a war of attrition, and they are avoiding high casualties. They pretty much took most of what they wanted (~85% or so). Would they like Kharkiv and Odessa, sure. But those will be horrible fights, at least now.
Russia keeps the pressure on and thereby prevents Ukraine from amassing a large reserve with which they can launch a true counter offensive which could practically seize terrain and hold it. For Ukraine, this is a war about trying to take and hold terrain - they are oriented on terrain. For Russia, this is a war where they are oriented on the enemy forces. It’s about keeping the Ukrainian forces depleted to the point where they can’t do much. This also puts Ukraine in an unfavorable position at the negotiating table since every month Ukraine is losing a little bit more real estate - the longer the war rages on, the worse Ukraine’s end state.
2.) In net, Ukraine is losing, losing, losing. They might gain a little back here or there, but then they will lose that again and then some, and in the net, every month, for the last 2+ YEARS, Ukraine is losing ground.
Ukraine is a very large country. People do not realize this. Ukraine was 233,100 square miles. In comparison, a state almost everyone is familiar with Florida is 65,000 square miles. Russia has gained an average of 176 square miles per month in 2025. Again, in comparison to what people are familiar with, NY city is about 305 square miles. Russia is seizing a little more than the landmass of NY city every two months. Another example, Ukraine is about 175% the landmass of Iraq, and about 150% the population. Think about the stress our military was under trying to deal with holding onto such a massive area and population.
484 football fields fit into one square mile. Russia is taking 176 X 484 every month. Our media belittles this.
We’re winning, we’re winning!!! At some point, the clowns screaming this look and sound like this: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/amUmQ-pTdiM
The war was essentially over (pending some act of God) after the failed counter offensive of 2023-2024. Since then, all the death and carnage was basically because you have failed politicians, many not even elected and supported by their population (Von der Leyen is a bureaucrat appointed, not elected in the EU) that have pinned their political future to the outcome of this war. Every Ukrainian AND Russian death post Ukrainian failed counter offensive was merely because politicians are playing games, but the physical reality of warfare, the cards people were dealt, how we play our hand, had all already been done. This is a poker game where each side knows the other sides hand, we lost and we know we lost, but instead of conceding loss, we are stalling by escalation (As done in 24, 25 and under Biden) or simply not agreeing to some agreement which eventually will be forced upon us if we play the attrition game until its bitter end when demographics end it.
The politicians opposing peace at this point are part of the problem and no tough guys with principals.
“AFP reports that Ukrainian soldiers took advantage of disruptions in Russian access to Starlink terminals.”
but, but, but the paid soviet trolls where SWORE it was fake news that the soviets are dependent on Starlink AND that they still had access to Starlink ...
Would you really prefer the foreign policy that we had under Biden as an alternative, where there was an implicit promise of a blank check to Ukraine with no expiration date?
First Boris Johnson and then Biden embraced the view that if only NATO nations (primarily the US) gave Ukraine enough money and arms, the Ukrainians would eventually retake every square mile of lost territory, including Crimea. What that means in practice is a blank check and free munitions for perpetuity, since the likelihood of Ukraine recapturing Crimea is about on par with Germany getting Danzig back today.
“1.) Russia is doing a slow roll because they have ZERO interest in taking the nationalist areas of Ukraine, “
ROTFLMAO! They tried and failed.
This is a propaganda source
Since you appear to be too inept to use Google, I’ll do it for you: https://www.google.com/search?q=russian+land+gain+per+month+ukraine&num
Checking out their webpage, it seems like they have a lot of young people doing research.
Doesn't really answer the question, but these guys do seem to have been wrong a lot less often than just about anyone else. They don't seem to make a lot of over the top predictions either way -- generally conservative estimates and reports based on actual observations that turn out to be supported by data.
So, maybe they're not wrong often because they don't tend to go out on limbs.
That is true, since Ukraine already has security guarantees from the UK, USA, and Russia granted to it in return for destroying Ukraine's arsenal of nuclear warheads, strategic bombers, and ICBMs.
If Ukraine hadn't relinquished its nuclear weapons Russia would not have invaded Ukraine in 2014 or 2022.
Only a Russian would consider 1000 dead soldiers a day to capture a 100 meters of farmland "avoiding" high casualties.
“170 square miles (about) of new gains per month.”
Only 1,096 months to go. About 91 years.
Long before the Muslims will be ruling Russia.
At the cost of more than 60,000 dead Russian soldiers. By your math that is about 200 dead Russian soldiers per square mile of mostly farmland.
Or about one dead Russian soldier for each 3 acres of farmland captured.
That doesn't seem like winning.
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