in August last year Ukraine shocked the world when its troops stormed across the border and captured territory inside Russia itself for the first time since the fullscale invasion began but almost as quickly as the land was initially conquered it's now almost being completely lost to a Russian counter offensive maps by The Institute of the study of War Based on data collected from social media shows in blue how the Ukrainian controlled Salient has shrunk rapidly over the past week or so so the Russian Advance coincided with President Donald Trump's suspension of US military intelligence sharing with Ukraine and although we don't know how decisive that was a source in the zalinsky government has told Time magazine that operations in KK were badly affected by the loss of us intelligence the telegraph has analyzed these videos which show how the Russian troops Advanced this video posted on March the 9th shows Russian troops in the village of Mala waving flags on top of what appears to be a Communications Tower they also made incursions from the other side of the Ukrainian held Salient by March 11th videos posted by Russian military bloggers show troops in the village of zosa the distinctive church with a blue Tower is a key identifier here they can be seen nearby in mnova the building next to the playground in this video is identifiable as the village kindergarten the next day videos emerged showing Russian soldiers taking the key town of suja which had been the heart of the Ukrainian Salient they can be seen here in a square in the center of town this came as Vladimir Putin himself made a surprise visit to K region and a rare appearance in military uniform just in time to associate himself with the Army's success Ukraine's Cur operation was meant to create a barging chip for Ukraine to trade with Russia in peace negotiations in that objective it has now failed so the Russians have won a victory but at what cost while Russia made progress in kers the ukrainians have suddenly started taking ground in donbass over the past week counterattacks near pakros and tet have thrown the Russians back from hard one Villages wo and in seven months of fighting ukrainians in K pinned down considerable Russian and North Korean forces killing thousands of enemy soldiers they demonstrated they could take the war to Russia and for a Time redefined the terms of the conflict the Ukraine war has to end so as Donald Trump tries to force a ceasefire through diplomacy the most powerful negotiating tool remains on the battlefield