The war in Ukraine that started a 12 months in the past has killed hundreds, pressured hundreds of thousands to flee their properties, decreased whole cities to rubble and has fueled fears the confrontation may slide into an open battle between Russia and NATO.
A have a look at a few of the important occasions within the battle.
2022
FEBRUARY
On Feb. 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin launches an invasion of Ukraine from the north, east and south. He says the “particular navy operation” is geared toward “demilitarization” and “denazification” of the nation to guard ethnic Russians, stop Kyiv’s NATO membership and to maintain it in Russia’s “sphere of affect.” Ukraine and the West say it is an unlawful act of aggression towards a rustic with a democratically elected authorities and a Jewish president whose relations had been killed within the Holocaust.
Russian troops shortly attain Kyiv’s outskirts, however their makes an attempt to seize the capital and different cities within the northeast meet stiff resistance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy data a video exterior his headquarters to indicate he’s staying and stays in cost.
MARCH
On March 2, Russia claims management of the southern metropolis of Kherson. Within the opening days of March, Russian forces additionally seize the remainder of the Kherson area and occupy a big a part of the neighboring Zaporizhzhia area, together with the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Energy Plant, Europe’s largest.
The Russian military quickly will get caught close to Kyiv, and its convoys — stretching alongside highways resulting in the Ukrainian capital — turn out to be simple prey for Ukrainian artillery and drones.
Moscow pronounces the withdrawal of forces from Kyiv and different areas March 29, saying it’s going to concentrate on the jap industrial heartland of the Donbas, the place Russia-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014 following the illegal annexation of Crimea.
APRIL
The Russian pullback from Kyiv reveals hundreds of bodies of civilians in mass graves or left within the streets of the city of Bucha, lots of them bearing indicators of torture in scenes that immediate world leaders to say Russia needs to be held accountable for attainable battle crimes.
On April 9, a Russian missile strike on a practice station within the jap metropolis of Kramatorsk kills 52 civilians and wounds over 100.
Intense battles rage for the strategic port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, and Russian air strikes and artillery bombardment cut back a lot of it to ruins.
On April 13, the missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, is hit by Ukrainian missiles and sinks the next day, damaging nationwide pleasure.
MAY
On Might 16, Ukrainian defenders of the enormous Azovstal metal mill, the final remaining Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol, comply with surrender to Russian forces after an almost three-month siege. Mariupol’s fall cuts Ukraine off from the Azov coast and secures a land hall from the Russian border to Crimea.
On Might 18, Finland and Sweden submit their functions to hitch NATO in a significant blow to Moscow over the growth of the navy alliance.
JUNE
Extra Western weapons circulation into Ukraine, together with U.S.-supplied HIMARS a number of rocket launchers.
On June 30, Russian troops pull back from Snake Island, positioned off the Black Sea port of Odesa and seized within the opening days of the invasion.
JULY
On July 22, Russia and Ukraine, with mediation by Turkey and the United Nations, agree on a deal to unblock provides of grain caught in Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, ending a standoff that threatened world meals safety.
On July 29, a missile strike hits a jail within the Russia-controlled jap city of Olenivka the place Ukrainian troopers captured in Mariupol had been held, killing at the least 53. Ukraine and Russia commerce blame for the assault.
AUGUST
On Aug. 9, highly effective explosions strike an air base in Crimea. Extra blasts hit an influence substation and ammunition depots there per week later. signaling the vulnerability of the Moscow-annexed Black Sea peninsula that Russia has used as a significant provide hub for the battle. Ukraine’s prime navy officer later acknowledges that the assaults on Crimea had been launched by Kyiv’s forces.
On Aug. 20, Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian nationalist ideologist Alexander Dugin, dies in a car bomb explosion exterior Moscow that the Russian authorities blame on Ukraine.
SEPTEMBER
On Sept. 6, the Ukrainian forces launch a shock counteroffensive within the northeastern Kharkiv area, shortly forcing Russia to drag again from broad areas held for months.
On Sept. 21, Putin orders mobilization of 300,000 reservists, an unpopular transfer that prompts a whole lot of hundreds of Russian males to flee to neighboring international locations to keep away from recruitment. On the identical time, Russia unexpectedly levels unlawful “referendums” in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas on whether or not to turn out to be a part of Russia. The votes are broadly dismissed as a sham by Ukraine and the West.
On Sept. 30, Putin indicators paperwork to annex the four regions at a Kremlin ceremony.
OCTOBER
On Oct. 8, a truck laden with explosives blows up on the bridge linking Crimea to Russia’s mainland in an assault that Putin blames on Ukraine. Russia responds with missile strikes on Ukraine’s energy crops and different key infrastructure.
After the primary wave of assaults on Oct. 10, the barrage continues regularly within the months that comply with, leading to blackouts and energy rationing throughout the nation.
NOVEMBER
On Nov. 9, Russia pronounces a pullback from the city of Kherson beneath a Ukrainian counteroffensive, abandoning the one regional heart Moscow captured, in a humiliating retreat for the Kremlin.
DECEMBER
On Dec. 5, the Russian navy says Ukraine used drones to focus on two bases for long-range bombers deep inside Russian territory. One other strike takes locations later within the month, underlining Ukraine’s readiness to up the ante and revealing gaps in Russian defenses.
On Dec. 21, Zelenskyy visits the USA on his first journey overseas because the battle started, assembly with President Joe Biden to safe Patriot air protection missile programs and different weapons and addressing Congress.
2023
JANUARY
On Jan. 1, simply moments into the New Yr, scores of freshly mobilized Russian troopers are killed by a Ukrainian missile strike on the town of Makiivka. Russia’s Protection Ministry says 89 troops had been killed, whereas Ukrainian officers put the loss of life toll within the a whole lot.
After months of ferocious preventing, Russia declares the seize of the salt-mining city of Soledar on Jan. 12, though Kyiv doesn’t acknowledge it till days later. Moscow additionally presses its offensive to grab the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut.
On Jan. 14, when Russia launches one other wave of strikes on Ukraine’s power services, a Russian missile hits an condominium constructing within the metropolis of Dnipro, killing 45.