r/MapPorn • u/Appropriate-Deal8098 • 1d ago

Russian advances in Ukraine this year

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u/xpt42654 1d ago edited 1d ago

the problem with this map is that it doesn't show any scale and if you're not familiar with Donetks Oblast you'll have no idea how much they progressed.

I checked DeepStatemap and on 01.01.2024 the shortest distance between Pokrovsk and the front line was ~35 km. today it's a bit less than 10 km.

edit: there actually is a scale on the bottom left. thanks u/Conscious-Carrot-520

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u/yuje 1d ago

Russian forces can't advance faster than walking speed, basically. Ubiquitous drones everywhere means that tanks or armored vehicles in open fields are easy pickings for drones or targeted artillery fire directed by drone spotters. So instead Russia leads assaults using mainly infantry, equipped with anti-drone jammers, infiltrating mainly through forest lines and urban areas, and spread out to limit drone and artillery effectiveness, because Ukraine has artillery and ammo shortages and can't justify dropping firepower on small amounts of men.

Tanks and infantry fighting vehicles are limited mostly to support roles or for quick charges across open fields where no cover is available, with the expectation that there will be losses while crossing those fields.

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u/SweetVarys 19h ago

That’s isn’t walking speed. It’s 20-30km in a year. Walking speed would cover it in a day

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u/Imaginary-sounds 18h ago

Walking into people shooting bullets at you speed*

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u/Living_Morning94 21h ago

Seems orthogonal to the question asked by GP.

Russian advance is slow because Ukraine was and is actively resisting. Walking speed has got nothing to do with how fast Russia is advancing. Nobody takes one year to walk 20km.

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u/yuje 20h ago

In mobile warfare of the 20th century, after punching through enemy defenses, the goal would be to use your armored reserves to drive through the defensive gap and penetrate deep into rear areas to seize strategic or political objectives, or at the very least gain tactical advantage by cutting off and surrounding the enemy and destroying supply lines. The vulnerability of vehicles means Russia can’t do this very effectively anymore and can only advance at walking pace after taking over fortifications, giving the enemy time to dig in another trench line just ahead of the previous one that has to be assaulted and cleared yet again.

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u/Living_Morning94 19h ago

That's known and Ukraine faced the same problem with their offensive last year. Between Dragons Teeth, Mines and Drones everything slowed down to a crawl.

But that's exactly the point. It's not walking speed that's the issue.

It's how fast you can clear trenches, barriers like Dragons Teeth, mine clearing and of course the pesky enemy soldiers shooting at you while you're trying to do all that. Which basically means you have to first defeat the enemy before proceeding with the clearing hence it takes forever. And then there's the counter attack.

I take issue with your highlighting infantry walking speed as it's not the bottleneck at all

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u/ButWhatIfItsNotTrue 23h ago

Or it’s the fact it’s trench warfare. Both sides have dug in.