The war in Ukraine has been going on for almost a hundred days – and Russian troops are occupying large parts of Ukraine. “Around 20 percent of our territory is now under the control of the occupying forces,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday.
In addition, the situation in the east of the country is becoming increasingly difficult: “We are losing 60 to 100 soldiers every day.” Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression on February 24, thousands of people have been killed and several million Ukrainians have been forced to flee.
The Ukrainian territory now controlled by Russia is already far larger than the area of ​​all Benelux countries put together, Zelenskyy said in a speech to the parliament in Luxembourg on Thursday. The area covers almost 125,000 square kilometers. Before February 24, it was a good 43,000 square kilometers.
The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine is currently focused primarily on the eastern areas of the country, the Donbass. There the Russian troops are gradually conquering more land; According to US intelligence, in some places it is 500 to 1,000 meters per day.
Especially in the first days of the invasion, Russian troops occupied significant parts of Ukraine, some of which they still hold today. So in the south and north-east of the country.
Proponents of an “appeasement” policy sometimes argue that Ukraine should cede the previously occupied territories in the interests of de-escalation.
And looking at Ukraine as a whole, the occupied territories may actually seem like a comparatively small part of the country. However, the author and former world chess champion Garri Kasparov points out in a well-received tweet: The areas taken correspond to the size of Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria together.
Ukraine is a comparatively large country. With around 600,000 square kilometers, it is almost twice the size of Germany. A look at Kasparov’s comparative maps is therefore worthwhile.
The occupied areas of the Ukraine correspond to almost a third of the German national territory. In addition, it would occupy a large part of the Balkans: almost the entire area of ​​Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Montenegro could be accommodated in the occupied zones. Almost all of the Czech Republic, including Slovakia, would be taken.
The maps clearly show which areas could be affected if Russia were to conquer similarly large areas in other parts of Europe. Similar posts had already shown that the area would roughly correspond to the entire US state of Pennsylvania.
Many of the users described the map as an “eye-opener” and the comparisons as a decisive argument against territorial concessions to Russia.
