Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Russia is gaining ground in Ukraine while losing the soldiers, money, industrial capacity, and political leverage needed to win. During June 2026, Moscow captured roughly 30 km² (12 mi²) at the cost of approximately 39,500 casualties and nearly $19 billion in war spending and strike-related losses. John Mearsheimer predicts an “ugly Russian victory,” but map movement cannot erase Putin’s failure to force Ukraine into submission.
Putin invaded to break the Ukrainian state, destroy its military, install a compliant government in Kyiv, and halt NATO expansion. Instead, Ukraine remains sovereign, armed, and capable of striking deep inside Russia; Finland and Sweden joined NATO; Russian refinery throughput fell 25%; and investors purchased less than 1% of Moscow’s planned 3rd-quarter borrowing. Sberbank now faces tighter liquidity, impaired loans, and growing pressure to finance the Kremlin.
Kyiv Post special correspondent Jason Smart follows the damage from Russia’s battlefield losses into its banks, energy system, businesses, and ruling elite. Authorities have seized approximately $50 billion in private assets since 2022, citizens moved roughly $25 billion into cash, and senior officials can no longer assume Moscow is safe. Local advances may continue, yet Russia is sacrificing the foundations of national power for territory that delivered none of Putin’s central objectives. The map shows what Moscow took; the balance sheet shows what it destroyed.
#UkraineWar #RussiaUkraineWar #Putin
Russia is gaining ground in Ukraine while losing the soldiers, money, industrial capacity, and political leverage needed to win. During June 2026, Moscow captured roughly 30 km² (12 mi²) at the cost of approximately 39,500 casualties and nearly $19 billion in war spending and strike-related losses. John Mearsheimer predicts an “ugly Russian victory,” but map movement cannot erase Putin’s failure to force Ukraine into submission.
Putin invaded to break the Ukrainian state, destroy its military, install a compliant government in Kyiv, and halt NATO expansion. Instead, Ukraine remains sovereign, armed, and capable of striking deep inside Russia; Finland and Sweden joined NATO; Russian refinery throughput fell 25%; and investors purchased less than 1% of Moscow’s planned 3rd-quarter borrowing. Sberbank now faces tighter liquidity, impaired loans, and growing pressure to finance the Kremlin.
Kyiv Post special correspondent Jason Smart follows the damage from Russia’s battlefield losses into its banks, energy system, businesses, and ruling elite. Authorities have seized approximately $50 billion in private assets since 2022, citizens moved roughly $25 billion into cash, and senior officials can no longer assume Moscow is safe. Local advances may continue, yet Russia is sacrificing the foundations of national power for territory that delivered none of Putin’s central objectives. The map shows what Moscow took; the balance sheet shows what it destroyed.
#UkraineWar #RussiaUkraineWar #Putin
