Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine Now Longer Than Soviet War Against Hitler

Three years. 10 months. 18 days.

As of January 12, that’s the amount of time that’s elapsed since Russia launched its all-out assault on Ukraine: Europe’s largest, bloodiest conflict war since World War II.

That’s one day longer than the Soviet Union spent battling Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945, during World War II, the largest, bloodiest conflict of the 20^th century.

Here’s one crucial difference, though.

In 1945, Moscow battled German forces across thousands of square kilometers, pushing them out of the country — all the way back to Berlin — before victory in what Russians today call the Great Patriotic War.

Russian President Vladimir Putin often likens the Ukraine war to the Great Patriotic War, trumpeting the battlefield leadership of the Soviet generals and officers who expelled the Germans.

In 2026, not only is Moscow the invader — of Ukraine — but it’s also struggling to achieve victory on the battlefield. Rather than sweeping across great expanses of territory, Russian forces are grinding forward at a snail’s pace. More like World War I than World War II.

Here’s how the two wars, now of equal length, played out territorially over time.

And this interactive map shows how the territory taken by Russia in Ukraine and the territory captured by the Red Army compare to the size of modern European countries.

NOTE: Borders on the eve of the German invasion of the USSR were obtained from Stanford University’s Spatial History Project. Modern border data was obtained from OpenStreetMap.