From the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 to the announced deployment of Western tanks to Kiev, five key moments in a deadly conflict unprecedented in Europe since 1945.
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Large-scale invasion
At dawn on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a “special military operation” to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine.
He claims to be working in defense of the separatist “republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk in Donbass, from which he declared independence and has supported the war against Kiev in eastern Ukraine for the past 8 years.
His army launched a full-scale invasion, with airstrikes across the country and incursions by ground forces to the north – from Moscow’s ally Belarus – to the east and south.
The Russian offensive is sparking a spate of international condemnation after months of tension and diplomatic efforts to avoid war.
The West imposes a series of economic sanctions on Russia, which have been tightened over time. The European Union announces arms deliveries to Ukraine for the first time. The United States will provide billions of dollars in military aid.
The horror at Boucha
Within days, Russian forces captured the important port of Berdyansk and the regional capital of Kherson near the Black Sea, as well as several cities around Kiev in the north-central part of the country.
But their attempt to seize the capital is met with opposition from Ukrainian forces, spurred on by their turned-warlord President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On April 2, Ukraine claims the entire Kyiv region has been liberated after a “quick withdrawal” of Russian forces, which are being moved east and south to “control” areas already occupied there.
In the fighting-ravaged town of Boutcha, the bodies of coldly executed civilians are discovered on the streets. The remains of several hundred civilians, some with signs of torture, are found in mass graves in this small town on the outskirts of Kiev.
Images of these massacres attributed to Russia provoke outrage from Westerners and the UN, allegations of war crimes multiply despite Moscow’s denials.
The case of Mariupol
On April 21, the Kremlin announces the capture of Mariupol, a strategic port in the Sea of Azov, which its forces have been besieging and bombarding since early March, cutting off vital infrastructure, water, electricity and heating.
The capture of this city should allow Russia to secure the connection between its forces from Crimea – the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014 – and the secessionist areas of Donbass.
But about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters, holed up with hundreds of civilians in the labyrinth of the underground Azovstal factory, continue the fight. They will resist until mid-May before surrendering.
According to Kiev, Mariupol is 90% destroyed and at least 20,000 people have died there.
Ukrainian counter-offensives
In early September, the Ukrainian army announced a counter-offensive in the south before conducting a surprise and lightning breakthrough of Russian lines to the north-east, forcing the Russian army to evacuate the Kharkiv region, the scene of heavy fighting.
In the south, the operation aims to recapture Kherson on the west bank of the Dnieper, the only regional capital to fall to Russian forces early in their invasion.
Step by step, the Ukrainian army, armed with Western weapons systems, captured dozens of locations and relentlessly bombed Russian ammunition depots and supply lines in the region. The Crimean Bridge, a powerful symbol, was damaged by a powerful explosion on October 8th.
Despite Moscow’s annexation of four occupied Ukrainian regions — Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporiya — by Moscow in late September following “referendums” that were not recognized by the international community, Russian forces were forced to leave Kherson on November 9.
Two days later, Ukraine regained control of the city, a “historic day” that President Zelenskyy hailed.
disastrous winter
From October, Russia systematically attacks Ukrainian power plants and transformers with its missiles and drones, plunging the population into cold and darkness.
In January, the Russian army, reinforced by around 300,000 reservists mobilized since September and supported by paramilitaries from the Wagner Group, went on the offensive again, particularly in the Donbass.
Fighting is raging, especially around Bakhmout, a city in the east that Russia has been attempting to conquer since the summer.
In the face of repeated requests from the Ukrainian president, and after long hesitation for fear of escalation, the Americans and Europeans pledged to send dozens of heavy tanks to Kiev in early February, arousing Moscow’s ire.
Russia and Ukraine have not provided reliable figures on their losses for months. According to Norway, the war in Ukraine has left almost 180,000 dead or wounded in the ranks of the Russian army and 100,000 on the Ukrainian side, not counting the 30,000 civilians killed.