Pace of Russian advance continues to fall, but increases again near Pokrovsk – DeepState
Russia increased the area of control over Ukrainian territory by 42.58 sq km during the past week from January 5 to 11 inclusive, which is less than the previous New Year's week when the enemy occupied 47.8 sq km, and more than twice less than the last full week of 2025 when they captured 95.51 sq km, according to maps by OSINT project DeepState.
At the same time, the enemy again significantly increased the pace of advancement on the Pokrovsk direction in western Donetsk region last week, capturing 22.14 sq km there over the week, whereas in the previous week they captured only 6.57 sq km. One can speak of a restoration of the average pace of enemy advancement on the Pokrovsk direction that existed at the end of 2025.
The occupiers also managed to capture 1.65 sq km on the Vovchansk direction in Kharkiv region at the end of the week, where no advancement was recorded in the previous week.
A slowdown or halt in enemy advancement is observed on other directions.
On the Chasiv Yar, Kostiantynivka and Siversk directions in eastern and northern Donetsk region, the occupiers captured 10.82 sq km over the week (20.34 sq km in the previous week), on the Zaporizhzhia, Huliaipole (also transliterated as Hulyaipole) and Novopavlivka directions in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions - 5.66 sq km (7.71 sq km in the previous week), on the Sumy direction - 2.31 sq km (6.57 sq km in the previous week).
On the Lyman direction in northern Donetsk region and in the area of Hrabovske village in Sumy region, where small enemy advances with a downward trend were recorded the previous week, the enemy did not increase the controlled area at all last week.
The "gray zone" of uncertain control last week increased by 7.26 sq km on the Zaporizhia, Huliaipole and Novopavlivka directions, by 1.33 sq km on the Pokrovsk and Dobropillia directions, and by 4.31 sq km on the Vovchansk direction. The "gray zone" also increased on the Lyman and Sumy directions where the occupied area did not increase - by 6.81 sq km and 4.48 sq km respectively. On the Chasiv Yar, Kostiantynivka and Siversk directions, the "gray zone" decreased by 2.73 sq km.
In total, the area of the "gray zone" increased by 21.46 sq km over the past week, whereas in the previous week - by 2.82 sq km.
Last week the occupiers increased the controlled area by an average of 6.08 sq km daily, while the "gray zone" increased by an average of 3.07 sq km daily.
In the previous New Year's week, the occupiers increased the controlled area by an average of 6.83 sq km each day.
As reported, in the last week of August and the first of September, the area of Russian occupation grew by an average of 10-11 sq km daily, which is 1.5 times less than in mid-August. In September, the occupiers' advancement continued at somewhat lower rates, which remained stable throughout October. In November, the enemy's speed of advancement sharply increased, mainly in the direction of Huliaipole, but then decreased again to 13-14 sq km on average per day. In mid-December it sharply increased again as a result of active enemy advancement in the direction of Siversk, after which it decreased first to the previous pace, and then at New Year's - by half again.
