Ukraine liberated 590 square kilometers of territory this year, ‘forcing Russia toward diplomacy,’ Zelensky says

News snippet: Ukraine has liberated 590 square kilometers of territory from Russian occupation since the beginning of the year, President Volodymyr Zelensky said May 22.

“We continue to increase the rate at which Russian personnel are being eliminated, and together with sanctions in all their forms, this is forcing Russia toward diplomacy,” Zelensky said in an evening address following a phone call with European allies.

French President Emmanuel Macron, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who make up the E3 format, spoke with Zelensky.

“I am grateful for their high assessment of our positions and the achievements of Ukrainian warriors. Indeed, Ukraine’s positions are stronger now than in previous years. Since the beginning of the year, 590 square kilometers of our territory have been liberated and brought under our control. The trend is certainly not in the occupier’s favor,” Zelensky said.

This is great news, though it is worth putting it in context, just to get a sense of what diplomacy might actually look like.

From April of this year:
>> Russia controls roughly 20 percent of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory, an area of about 45,800 square miles comparable in size to Pennsylvania. That figure includes Crimea (seized in 2014), most of the Donbas region in the east, and large swaths of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in the south.

45,800 square miles is 118,621.46 square kilometers. So the hard work of liberation in 2026 resulted in Russia now controlling approximately 118,000 square kilometers.

… which, okay, includes Crimea which is unlikely to ever return. But still… it is difficult to see what concessions Putin is likely to make over this.

* Isle of Man: 572 square km
* Guam: 541 square km
* St Lucia: 616 square km

Pointless war, let there be Peace!