Secretary of State Antony Brinken announced on July 23 that Ukraine had regained 50% of its lost territory since February 2022.
Verdict: Truth
According to the Institute for War Studies (ISW), Ukraine has regained about 53% of the territory it initially lost during the February 2022 Russian invasion.
Fact check:
Mr. Blinken argued during the trial July 23rd interview On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Ukraine said it had regained 50% of the territory it lost since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.
“Now Ukraine is fighting to take back more land that Russia has taken. Already about 50% of what was originally seized has been taken back. We do,” Brinken said.
This seems to be true, but the context must be considered. Russia occupied much of southern and eastern Ukraine in its first invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine reportedly regained territory last fall, liberating large swaths of Kharkov and Kherson provinces. Washington Post.
A spokesperson for the nonpartisan think tank ISW instructed the organization on July 23 to “check the facts.” Campaign evaluationstated that Blinken’s claims “are broadly consistent with ISW’s current assessment of terrain control.”
“Analysts can use several methods to calculate terrain controls and the results will vary depending on the map projection used and other factors. Estimation using ISW Terrain Data Management and Mercator Projection shows that Ukrainian forces have liberated about 53 percent of the land occupied by Russian forces since February 2022,” the assessment reads. “Estimates made using different data sources, measurement methods, or projections will produce different numbers. may give.”
The ISW map shows that Ukraine has made some progress in the south around the villages of Priyutne and Staromayorsk and in the east around Bakhmut. (Related: 27,000 Russians surrendered in Ukraine?)
new: #putin expressed ongoing concerns about potential threats. # Wagner Group & Evgeny #prigogine During a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander, possibly posing to him through symbolism and posturing #lukashenko in Saint Petersburg, #Russia. https://t.co/jWahtGG1dM pic.twitter.com/neZLAPVkpN
—ISW (@TheStudyofWar) July 24, 2023
Newsweek report In November 2022, it was announced that Russia occupied 133,137 square kilometers of Ukraine. This number includes Crimea, which was occupied in 2014, as well as territories controlled by the self-proclaimed separatists Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, which separated from Ukraine and were illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. rice field. September 2022He said Ukraine had liberated about 37% of all territories occupied by separatists and Russians.
Defmon 3an open source intelligence account. map The Russo-Ukrainian war will depend on the situation.
“It’s really a matter of what you consider to have been controlled by the Russians in the early invasion. You can do it in two ways. Counting just the areas close to the road, more than 50% have been liberated.” Much less, but given that the entire area between roads is cleared, 50% seems right,” DefMon 3 said in an email, “check the facts.”
Check Your Fact reached out to the State Department and other cartographers of the Russo-Ukrainian War for comment.
