Russia accelerated Ukraine advance in January despite coldest temperatures

Kyiv: Russian troops accelerated their advance in Ukraine throughout January, capturing almost twice as much land as in the previous month, according to an AFP analysis.
The push on the front comes even as Ukraine is experiencing its coldest temperatures of the entire war — conditions that typically complicate ground operations.
Russia seized 481 square kilometres in January, analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which works with the Critical Threats Project, showed.
The January gains were up from 244 square kilometres in December 2025 and one of the largest advances during a winter month since Russia invaded four years ago.
The data includes areas that Kyiv and military analysts say are controlled by Russia, as well as those claimed by Moscow's army.
After failing in its aim of a lightning offensive to capture Kyiv and topple Ukraine's leadership in a matter of days in 2022, Russia has been bogged down in the face of Ukrainian defences and is now mounting a grinding advance that has come at huge human cost.
Russia wants to seize full control of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region and has repeatedly threatened it will press on with its offensive if Kyiv does not agree to hand it over voluntarily.
Ukraine has ruled out ceding ground, saying that such a move would only embolden Moscow, and has refused to sign any deal that might fail to deter Russia from invading again.
Despite trilateral talks between US, Ukrainian and Russian envoys held in Abu Dhabi last month, the issue of territory remains the key sticking point.
A new round of talks is scheduled for Wednesday. The Kremlin has confirmed that the next round of talks with Ukraine and the United States on a possible end to the war will take place later this week in Abu Dhabi, the Russian news agency Interfax reported on Monday. This tallies with the dates given by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday.
Russia controls around 83 per cent of the industrial Donetsk region, a strategic mining hub home to vast natural resources.
AFP analysis found Russia's advances there slowed during January and at the current pace it would take Moscow another 18 months to capture the entire area.
As its troops pressed on in the east and south, Russia has also pounded Ukraine's energy facilities, pushing the capital Kyiv to the brink of a humanitarian crisis with millions plunged into darkness and without heating as temperatures hit minus 20C.
Russia controls a total of 19.5 per cent of Ukraine's territory, the AFP analysis showed.
Around a third of that — including the Crimean peninsula which it annexed in 2014 — was already controlled by Moscow or Russian-backed separatists before the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.. — AFP