I've been wondering about the magnitude of this statistic a lot.
There are two reasons land can be lost bit by bit on a consistent basis but see no breakthroughs with a run where a large portion of land will change hands. The first reason is they are being slowly, systematically being beaten by the enemy.
The second reason one might see an emey advancing slowly is they are shaping the battlefield for some reason and need those positions to push off from for a planned offencive.
The third reason is it is one own's side who allow the enemy to move forward a bit, just enough to make the fortifications the enemy has set up for one place to become out of place for a new situation. It causes the enemy to have to pick up and move their land mines.
I've been watching the end segment of Deny's reports where he clicks on the map he is using and it show the lines as they were yesterday, and how they look today. He clicks it back and forth. An ideal tool for looking at that.
I'm now at the end of two weeks of watching this happen, it is about 500 square kilometers area that the Russians have now been tasked by the Ukranians to move their mines and get to work building and modifying their fortifications on.
I'll explain this kind of draw play in warfare another way. Suppose you want to get a long overloaded train rolling down the tracks, what do you do?
You might get away with putting the power selector to forward, and feed it the juice. It might take off and start rolling toward where you want it to go.
It might work out, but it's better and a sure thing to put the power selector in reverse and give it the juice for just a bit. Just a couple feet, the engine backs up and presses the hitch to the first car to cause it to move back a bit. So on and so forth all down the train, each car in turn is moved a tiny bit to take out the slack in say a hundred sets of hitches. Each car moves a bit and it adds up, a few thousands of an inch of slack is removed from between the cars, it might add up to several inches that the length of that train shrinks.
Then one moves the power selector to forward and feeds it all the juice they have to the wheels to go forward. The engine moves forward and that shifts the slack in the hitch to the other end. The engine is now moving and it has the power to get the first car moving where it also pulls out that movement space from the slack in the hitch.
Then the engine and one car is moving and that pulls the slack out of the second hitch, another few thousands of an inch of movement. Another, another, another... . Your on your way.
Sometimes physics requires one to move backward a bit to then be able move forward.