Russia controls roughly 20 percent of Ukraine's internationally recognized territory as of 2026 — an area the size of Louisiana. Here's what Russia holds, how it got there, and what the war has cost both sides.
As of March 2026, Russia controls roughly 20 percent of Ukraine's internationally recognized territory — an area of approximately 110,000 to 120,000 square kilometers, comparable in size to Louisiana or South Korea. That figure sounds stark, but it conceals a complicated history that stretches back to 2014 rather than 2022, and it understates how dramatically the front line has shifted across different phases of the war.
## What Russia Controls in 2026
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**Parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts** have been under Russian-backed separatist control since April 2014, when armed groups seized government buildings across the Donbas following the Crimea seizure. Russia formally recognized the "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Luhansk People's Republic" as independent states in February 2022 — two days before the full-scale invasion — and declared them "annexed" in September 2022, along with Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts. Russia does not fully control any of those four oblasts.
**Portions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts** were seized in the first weeks of the February 2022 invasion. Russia fully occupied Kherson city — the only regional capital it captured — before Ukrainian forces retook it in November 2022 in one of the war's most significant counteroffensives. Russia holds the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast; Ukraine controls the western bank. In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Russia holds the south, including the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant — Europe's largest — which has remained under Russian control and been a persistent source of nuclear safety concern.
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The total area under Russian control is roughly 18 to 20 percent of Ukraine's pre-2014 territory. Gains have been incremental since 2023: analysts at ACLED and DeepState Map tracked Russia advancing roughly 200 to 400 square kilometers per month through the second half of 2024. The pace slowed in early 2026 but has not stopped.
## Why Did the Russia-Ukraine War Start?
The proximate cause of the 2022 full-scale invasion was Russia's stated objection to NATO's potential expansion to Ukraine and its declared goal of "denazification" and "demilitarization" of Ukraine — claims that Western governments and international observers widely dismissed as pretexts for a territorial war.
The deeper causes are more layered. Russia and Ukraine had been in a low-grade armed conflict since 2014. Ukraine's accelerating trajectory toward EU and NATO integration — particularly after Zelenskyy's 2019 election — was perceived by Moscow as a closing window. Putin's 2021 essay on "historical unity" of Russians and Ukrainians was widely read in retrospect as philosophical groundwork for what followed.
Western analysts remain divided on the primary driver. Some argue it was straightforward Russian revanchism and a project to reassemble influence over post-Soviet space. Others point to NATO's 2008 Bucharest Declaration — which promised Ukraine membership "eventually" without a concrete timeline — as a miscalculation that gave Russia a grievance without giving Ukraine a security guarantee. The debate is real, though it does not change the basic legal fact that Russia launched an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign country.
## Does Ukraine Still Have Kursk?
In August 2024, Ukraine launched a surprise cross-border offensive into Russia's Kursk Oblast — the first time a foreign army had held Russian territory since World War II. At its peak, Ukraine controlled approximately 1,200 to 1,300 square kilometers including several towns. The stated objectives were to create a buffer zone, tie down Russian forces, and demonstrate that the war could reach Russian soil.
Russia mounted a sustained counter-offensive over the following months, deploying North Korean troops alongside Russian forces for the first time. By early 2026, Ukraine had largely withdrawn under sustained pressure. Ukrainian forces retain a limited presence in small border pockets, but the large-scale Kursk incursion is effectively over. Military analysts debate whether it achieved its strategic aims. What it unambiguously demonstrated was that Russia's border territories are not as defensible as Moscow's earlier posture had suggested.
## How Many People Have Died in the Ukraine War?
Getting accurate figures from an active war is impossible, and both sides have reasons to manage the numbers. With those caveats stated: Ukraine's General Staff reported in early 2026 that Russia has suffered approximately 1.28 to 1.3 million military casualties — killed and wounded — since February 2022. Western intelligence agencies broadly accept that Russian losses are in the hundreds of thousands but treat Ukraine's specific figures as upper-range estimates.
Ukrainian military deaths are even harder to assess. Ukraine treats casualty figures as a state secret. U.S. officials have at various times estimated Ukrainian military deaths at 30,000 to 50,000 in 2024 alone. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission had documented over 12,000 confirmed civilian deaths as of early 2026, while acknowledging the true figure is likely substantially higher.
In 2024 specifically, the war entered its most grinding attritional phase since the battle of Bakhmut. Russia captured Avdiivka in February 2024 after months of devastating urban fighting, then pushed along the Donetsk front. Both sides suffered serious losses.
## How Many Soldiers Does Russia Have Left?
Russia entered the war with approximately 900,000 active-duty personnel. Mobilization and continuous recruitment have expanded that number significantly. Current estimates put Russia's deployed force in and around Ukraine at roughly 600,000 personnel, with total military manpower including reserves at 1.3 to 1.5 million. Russia has maintained pressure despite enormous losses by intensifying recruitment campaigns, lowering age and fitness requirements, using prisoner recruiting programs, and — notably — deploying North Korean troops, who number an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 on Russian territory adjacent to Ukraine.
## How Many Russians Have Left Russia Since the War?
The emigration wave that followed February 2022 was one of the largest in Russian history. The independent Russian outlet Meduza and economists at Yale estimated between 500,000 and one million people left Russia in the first year alone. A second wave followed the September 2022 mobilization announcement, when hundreds of thousands of men fled to Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Serbia to avoid conscription.
Total net emigration is difficult to calculate because many who left have since returned. Estimates put the net outflow at 600,000 to 900,000 people, heavily concentrated among young, educated, English-speaking professionals — the demographic Russia can least afford to lose for long-term economic competitiveness and technological development.
## How Much Money Has the US Sent to Ukraine?
US military and financial assistance to Ukraine reached approximately $175 billion through the end of 2025 — by far the largest contribution of any single country. That figure encompasses military equipment and weapons (the majority), direct budget support, humanitarian aid, and intelligence sharing. The pace slowed significantly in 2025 as the Trump administration renegotiated the terms of support, demanding economic concessions from Ukraine including a controversial minerals-revenue agreement, and pressing European allies to shoulder more of the financial burden. The EU's EUR 90 billion loan package confirmed in March 2026 represents Europe's most significant step in that direction.
## What Language Is Spoken in Ukraine?
Ukrainian is the official state language and has been gaining ground rapidly since 2022. Russian is still widely spoken — particularly in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa, and the eastern regions — where it was the first language for many residents before the war. A 2022 survey found nearly 60 percent of Ukrainians had switched primarily to Ukrainian in daily life since the invasion, a striking shift in a country where code-switching between Ukrainian and Russian had long been common in the east and south.
Language laws now require Ukrainian in public services, education, and media. Russian is not prohibited in private use, but the social dynamics around speaking Russian in public — especially in Kyiv — have changed dramatically since February 2022.
## What Does "Oblast" Mean?
An oblast (Ukrainian and Russian: область) is a standard administrative division roughly equivalent to a state or province. Ukraine is divided into 25 oblasts plus the city of Kyiv, which has special status. The word derives from a root meaning "region" or "area" and is used across post-Soviet states. When you read about fighting in "Donetsk Oblast" or "Kherson Oblast," think of it the way you would "Donetsk Province" or "Kherson Region."
## Who Owns Crimea?
Under international law, Crimea is Ukrainian territory. The UN General Assembly declared Russia's 2014 annexation illegal with 100 votes in favor, 11 against, and 58 abstentions. No UN member state other than Russia and a small number of close Russian allies recognizes Russian sovereignty over Crimea. Ukraine's constitution prohibits any government from ceding Ukrainian territory, making any legal transfer of Crimea constitutionally impossible under current Ukrainian law.
Russia's physical control of the peninsula is effectively total. The Kerch Strait Bridge, built in 2018, provides a land connection to Russia's mainland, though Ukraine has struck it twice (October 2022 and July 2023), disrupting its use for military resupply.
## How Many Years Has Ukraine Existed?
Ukraine declared independence on August 24, 1991 — so as a modern independent state, it is 34 years old in 2026. As a distinct cultural and political identity, the roots go much deeper: the Cossack Hetmanate of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the brief Ukrainian People's Republic of 1917–1920, and ultimately back to Kievan Rus in the ninth century. How you measure Ukraine's age depends on whether you're counting statehood or nationhood — a distinction that matters enormously in the current conflict.
## Does Vladimir Putin Have a Wife?
Putin divorced Lyudmila Shkrebneva — his wife of 30 years — in 2013. The couple announced the divorce on state television in a brief, clearly staged exchange. Putin has two daughters, Maria and Katerina, from the marriage. Since the divorce, Russian state media have been unusually tight-lipped about Putin's personal life. Sustained reporting, particularly from opposition figures and journalists like those at the Meduza outlet, has linked Putin to gymnast Alina Kabaeva, with whom he is widely reported to have children. Neither Putin nor the Kremlin has ever confirmed this relationship.
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## FAQ
**Q: How much Ukrainian territory does Russia control in 2026?** A: Russia controls approximately 110,000 to 120,000 square kilometers of Ukraine — roughly 18 to 20 percent of the country's pre-2014 territory. This includes Crimea (seized 2014), parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts (partially held since 2014, formally annexed 2022), and significant portions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts (seized in 2022).
**Q: Why did Russia invade Ukraine?** A: Russia's stated reasons — "denazification" and preventing NATO expansion — are widely dismissed as pretexts. The underlying factors include Putin's belief that Ukraine is not a legitimate separate nation, Russia's opposition to Ukraine's westward trajectory toward EU and NATO membership, and broader ambitions to reassert Russian dominance over post-Soviet states.
**Q: Does Ukraine still hold Kursk territory?** A: Ukraine launched a major incursion into Russia's Kursk Oblast in August 2024, briefly controlling over 1,200 square kilometers. By early 2026, Russian forces (with North Korean support) had largely recaptured that territory. Ukraine retains minor border positions, but the large-scale Kursk operation is effectively concluded.
**Q: How much US aid has Ukraine received?** A: Approximately $175 billion in total US assistance through the end of 2025, including military equipment, budget support, and humanitarian aid. The pace of US assistance slowed in 2025 under the Trump administration, which pushed Ukraine and European allies to renegotiate terms.
**Q: What does "oblast" mean?** A: Oblast is an administrative division in Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries, roughly equivalent to a state or province. Ukraine is divided into 25 oblasts plus the city of Kyiv.
