Mapping the Russian Advance

One thing that has surprised most people about Russia's illegal attempt to occupy Ukraine is how ill equipped the Russian army has been. A combination of poor logistics, poor planning, poor equipment and poor morale all appear to have helped hinder the Russian advance. At the same time the incredible bravery and resistance of the Ukrainian people has proved an amazing counterpoint to the shame and disgrace of Putin and the Russian government.

The French newspaper Le Parisien has created an animated map which provides a great illustration of how Russia's attack on Ukraine hasn't gone to plan.The War in Ukraine: The Daily Map Which Shows the Situation Town by Town includes an interactive map which shows which towns in Ukraine have been under Russian or Ukrainian control for every day of the war.

The animated map (shown above) clearly shows how badly the war has gone for Russia, so far. Over the last week you can see that Russia has started to consolidate its control in the South East of Ukraine, connecting the Donbas region to Crimea.However even here the Russians have met with incredible resistance. For example, the heroic citizens of Mariupol have held out for over a week without food supplies, water, power or heat; while the Russian army illegally bombs civilian targets, such as the city's hospital.

Le Parisien's daily updated map uses data from Wikipedia's Russo-Ukrainian War Detailed Map. This is a crowd-sourced map which shows the current status of towns and cities in Ukraine in terms of whether they are under Ukrainian or Russian control. Cities marked blue on the Wikipedia & Le Parisien maps are currently under Ukrainian control and cities shown with a red circle are under Russian control. 

The map data is taken from the Wikipedia article Cities and Towns during the Russo-Ukrainian War. According to Wikipedia the status of each town is determined by a creditable source.