Ffacebook.com•2026-04-10

Vance calls Ukraine war a dispute over "a few square kilometers"; occupied area is about 118,611 km²

J.D. Vance said the war in Ukraine has “stopped making sense,” calling it a dispute over “a few square kilometers.” In reality, it’s about 118,611 square kilometers (according to the Belfer Center at Harvard Kennedy School) — roughly 20% of Ukraine’s territory. To put that in American terms: That’s about the size of Pennsylvania. But proportionally, it’s even more striking. It would be like losing more than the entire state of Alaska, or the equivalent of Texas, California, Montana, New Mexico, and half of Arizona combined. If you translate that into regions closer to where Vance is from, it would mean losing Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Maryland, D.C., both Virginias, Delaware, both Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan — and still more on top of that.