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Post #250

RU POV: Russian and Ukrainian advances from Day 1398 to 1400 of the War - Suriyakmaps

Dec 22, 2025 — Dec 24, 2025 War Day 1398–1400

Suriyak has announced he is no longer doing daily updates, but will do them on every second day (covering both) in order to reduce his workload. This is an understandable change, as aside from a couple of short breaks Suriyak has been making updates everyday for almost 4 years straight at this point, on top of occasional updates for other conflicts he is covering.

As for the effect on these posts, it will be minimal. This will make it a bit more awkward, as I will have less flexibility in how many days each of my posts cover, but I will just have to work around that. This post wasn’t affected by the change, but all of them from now on will be.

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Pictures 1 to 7 are from Day 1398 (Monday 22 December), pictures 8 to 12 are from Day 1399 (Tuesday 23 December), and pictures 13 to 15 are from Day 1400 (Wednesday 24 December).

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A reminder that these maps are confirming updates from previous days (i.e. typically 12 to 72 hours delayed from each day).

Live map can be found here, Suriyak’s twitter can be found here.

Ukrainian Advance
27.35 km²
Overall (set): 27.35 km²
Russian Advance
55.60 km²
Net Change
-28.25 km²

Situation Snapshots

Imagery, commentary, and territorial changes from the period.

19 entries
Russian Forces Advance: 1.26 km²

Advance = 1.26km2

Kicking off on the northern front, Russia finalised their clearing of Vilcha, establishing full control over the village over the past couple of days. As I’ve mentioned before, they will likely continue to push south through the forest and assault the villages there, rather than straying too far out into the open fields east.
Russian Forces Advance: 4.23 km²

Advance = 4.23km2

Over on the Sumy front, as part of their partial reactivation of this front Russia has once again started moving around Yunakivka, recapturing some treelines west of the town. As with last week, still only minor Russian movements by a small number of troops, taking advantage of gaps in Ukrainian coverage.
Russian Forces Advance: 1.14 km²

Advance = 1.14km2

Down to the Lyman front, Russian troops made a small advance in the forest south of the town and north of Dibrova, as clashes continue in the latter.
Russian Forces Advance: 20.94 km²

Top Right Advance = 17.61km2, Middle Right Advance = 3.33km2

Moving to the Siversk front, following on from the previous post, Russia has continued to build on their momentum following the capture of the town. Russian forces were able to capture a large area of fields, treelines and some fortifications stretching from Sviato-Pokrovske (above the a) all the way down to Pazeno (below the k), as well as capturing the small forest area south of the latter.

From what I could gather Ukrainian forces are still trying to reorganise their units in this area after the initial stabilisation attempts failed and the forward positions were overwhelmed. See my comment below for a more in-depth explanation.
Russian Forces Advance: 1.20 km²

Advance = 1.20km2

Out on the Kostyantynivka front, west of the city, during some positional battles fought over the last week Russia captured a couple of treelines next to Stepanivka. They have so far been unable to enter the village, but are trying to improve their positions nearby for an eventual assault.
Context
Russian Forces Advance: 6.41 km²

Advance = 6.41km2

Heading to the Pokrovske front, Russian assault groups pushed into the remainder of Andriivka, clearing out the last of the garrison and capturing the village, as well as the adjacent farm. This further expands the number of places Russia can try cross the Haichur River (west), but also limits Ukrainian movements from the supply hub of Pokrovske. I still do not think Russia will try make an attempt on the town anytime soon, but cutting off the nearby roads linking it to other parts of the front will still hinder Ukraine here.
Russian Forces Advance: 5.05 km²

Upper Left Advance = 0.63km2, Middle Left Advance = 0.77km2, Lower Left Advance = 3.65km2

Onto the Hulyaipole front, Russian forces made further progress in their assault on the town. On then north side, they crossed the Haichur River in another place, capturing a couple of streets as their forces move west.

Southeast of that in the centre of the town, Russian assault groups captured a number of houses and apartment buildings, securing a solid hold on this side of the river.

To the south, other Russian groups captured some more houses on the edge of Hulyaipole, as well as clearing some of the nearby fields and treelines. At this point in time Russia controls slightly over 70% of Hulyaipole, with the remainder under attack.
Context
Russian Forces Advance: 0.82 km²

Advance = 0.82km2

Back up to the northern front, after weeks of positional fighting Russia captured the village of Prylipka. Ukraine still maintains their presence in the adjacent forest area, so the settlement will not be secure until Russia can drive them out.
Ukrainian Forces Advance: 2.90 km²

Advance = 2.90km2

Moving to the Kupyansk front, after another week of attacks Ukraine made further progress north of the town, managing to recapture some treelines and fields west of Kalynove.
Russian Forces Advance: 1.09 km²

Advance = 1.09km2

Over on the Pokrovsk front, Russia continues to try break into Hryshyne, with their assault groups making a minor amount of progress in the southern streets over the past week.
Ukrainian Forces Advance: 4.46 km²

Advance = 4.46km2

Heading to the Novopavlivka front, as I mentioned in an earlier post, Russia has effectively lost their control over the eastern half of the town, with Ukraine now confirmed to have recaptured the central area. Any remaining Russian troops present will be holed up in the southern houses, and unless reinforced will have to withdraw or be wiped out.
Russian Forces Advance: 4.23 km²

Advance = 4.23km2

Following on from picture 6, Russian forces expanded their bridgehead on the west side of the Haichur River, capturing more trench networks and the village of Zarichne. Russia is now in a good position to assault the small town of Ternuvate from the northeast (seen here) and the southeast (off map south), the capture of which will be key for any Russian push deeper into Zaporizhia Oblast.

Context
Ukrainian Forces Advance: 19.99 km²

Left Top Left Advance = 0.18km2, Right Top Left Advance = 0.08km2, Far Left Advance = 0.91km2, Left Advance = 0.15km2, Middle Left Advance = 4.49km2 Bottom Right Advance = 14.18km2

Following on from picture 9, the situation in Kupyansk has further deteriorated for Russia over the past week. More of the western half of the town has come under Ukrainian control, as their assault groups cleared the many empty areas Russia was forced to abandon.

Whilst Russian troops have been withdrawing from parts of Kupyansk over the past couple of weeks following the Ukrainian counterattacks, the situation on the east side of the town also deteriorated. Ukraine reportedly flooded the area with numerous small infantry groups, similar to what Russia has done in several other battles, leading to the outnumbered Russian troops to quickly lose control of much of the industrial area and their positions near Kucherivka. This also explains the enormous amount of drone footage that has been released of strikes on Ukrainian infantry (such as video 1, video 2, video 3), with there being an enormous number of groups moving around in the town.

As of now, there is a lot of confusion and uncertainty over the exact control of both sides of the town and how many Russian soldiers are still left on the west side. I doubt the Russians can turn the situation around from here unless they find multiple other brigades to throw into the battle, but it will likely still drag on a while longer whilst Ukraine clears and resecures the remainder of the settlement.

To the southeast, with no new information about the Russian DRGs spotted back on Day 1376 (30 November) near Kurylivka, Suriyak has changed the large area of greyzone and a small bit of Russian territory back to Ukrainian controlled, as it’s clear these groups were either wiped out or withdrew long ago.
Context
Russian Forces Advance: 2.85 km²

Advance = 2.85km2

Over to the Siversk front once again, this time west of the town where Russian forces have captured several treelines north of Riznykivka.
Russian Forces Advance: 6.38 km²

Middle Right Advance = 4.78km2, Bottom Left Advance = 1.60km2

Following on from picture 4, the small pocket south of Vasyukivka, abandoned by Ukraine last week, has been cleared and captured by Russian forces. The remaining greyzone and the Ukrainian controlled forest west of this will likely be captured by Russia in the coming days as well.

To the southwest, Russian assault groups are building on their earlier success around Orikhovo-Vasylivka, capturing some treelines and fortifications west of the village, as the first groups push into Minkivka (under the u).