According to analysts, this figure is almost equal to all the territorial seizures of the aggressor country Russia in December and became Kyiv’s largest success in such a short period of time since the start of the counter-offensive in the summer of 2023.
ISW noted that Ukrainian counterattacks were likely intensified by the recent restriction of Russian troops' access to the Starlink satellite communications system. According to Russian military bloggers, this led to serious problems with communication and control of units on the front line.
In the ISW report for February 15 saidthat Ukraine managed to return under its control small settlements along the Yanchur and Gaichur rivers in the Aleksandrovsky and Gulyai-Polye directions in the Zaporozhye region. The institute refers to the assessments of Ukrainian military expert Konstantin Mashovets. In some areas, the Russian occupiers were pushed back 9-9.5 km.
Context
The Russian Federation launched a war against Ukraine in 2014, when it occupied Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine from the northern, eastern and southern directions. In the spring of the same year, the Ukrainian army deoccupied the north of the country, and in the fall – parts of the Kharkov and Kherson regions, in particular Kherson. In June 2024, the Russian army launched an invasion in the north of the Kharkov region.
January 26, 2026 “Agency” with reference to data from the DeepState project, it wrote that the rate of advance of the Russian army in Ukraine fell almost threefold.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said at a ministerial meeting in Brussels ahead of the Munich Security Conference on February 13 that Russia was “moving at the speed of a garden snail” in Ukraine.
