In maps: Tracking the war with Russia

Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia 4 days ago Share Save the Visual Journalism team BBC News Share Save The war in Ukraine is about to enter its fifth year. Over the past year, Russian forces have slowly expanded the amount of territory they control, mostly in the east of Ukraine, and have continued their barrage of air strikes on Kyiv and other cities. Some 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, while the BBC has confirmed the names of almost 160,000 people killed fighting on Russia's side. With the fourth anniversary of the Russia's full-scale invasion approaching, here's a look at the situation on the ground in Ukraine. Russia grinds forward in the east Analysts at the US-based Institute for the Study of War , say Russia took about 4,700 sq km (1,800 sq miles) of territory in 2025 - an area about twice the size of the city of Moscow - although Russia claims to have taken 6,000 sq km. In eastern Ukraine, Moscow's war machine has been churning mile by mile through the wide open fields of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions - also known as the Donbas - surrounding and overwhelming villages and towns. It has been trying to gain full control of the area along with two more regions to the west - Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Shortly after the invasion, Russia held referendums to try to annexe all these regions - in the same way it had annexed Crimea in 2014 - but it has never had them under full control. There is some evidence that Elon Musk's decision to deny Russian forces access to his Starlink satellite-based internet service at the start of February has given Ukraine an advantage . Ukraine requested the move as evidence grew that Starlink was enabling Russian forces to mount increasingly accurate attacks, including multiple instances of units being attached to drones, allowing operators to use real-time video links to guide drones on to targets. In some areas of the long front line, especially east of th...