THE WORLD ATLAS

War · 2022 onwards

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Kyiv (Ukraine)

In 2014, after protests in Kyiv ousted the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, Russia seized and annexed Crimea and backed separatist forces in the Donbas, where fighting killed about 14,000 people before 2022. On 24 February 2022 President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" and Russian forces invaded from Belarus towards Kyiv, from Crimea in the south and from the Donbas in the east; they withdrew from around Kyiv by April, revealing the Bucha massacre, and Ukrainian counteroffensives retook most of Kharkiv Oblast and the city of Kherson in late 2022.

The war then became a costly war of attrition, with Russia occupying roughly a fifth of Ukraine.

See it on the map

Kyiv civilians prepare Molotov cocktails in a basement as Russian troops approach, 25 February 2022
Kyiv civilians prepare Molotov cocktails in a basement as Russian troops approach, 25 February 2022 Yan Boechat / VOA · Public domain (US federal government)

Why it mattered

It is the largest and deadliest war in Europe since the Second World War: estimates of military casualties (killed and wounded) on both sides range from about 1.3 million to 2 million by mid-2026, though all such figures are uncertain, and the UN had verified more than 17,000 civilian deaths, which it believes is an undercount, while 6 to 7 million Ukrainians fled abroad, Europe's largest refugee crisis since 1945.

Elsewhere

On 2 March 2022 the UN General Assembly voted 141 to 5, with 35 abstentions, to demand that Russia withdraw its forces from Ukraine; many countries imposed sanctions on Russia, and the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and other Russian officials.

Related

Sources