The Donetsk region in the East is the main theater of clashes between Russians and Ukrainians for two years. About 70% of Russian advances in Ukrainian territory in 2025 were operated on this part of the front.
Moscow has been claiming the annexation of this region since September 2022. De facto, on August 12, it controls at least partially or claimed 79%, against 62% a year earlier.
For more than a year and a half, she has been trying to seize the mining city of Pokrovsk, after capturing Bakhmout in May 2023. Its advance also threatens the city garrison of Dobropillia.
Such taken would raise the danger for the last two large cities held by kyiv in the region, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, which is an important logistics center of the front.
Since April, the Russian army has been advancing each month faster than the previous one. As of August 12, it had increased by more than 6,100 km2 over the last 365 km, four times more than in the previous 365s. This represents only 1% of the pre-war Ukrainian territory, including Crimea and Donbass.
Russia is currently exercising total or partial control over 19% of the Ukrainian territory.
