THE WORLD ATLAS

War · 24 February 2022 – ongoing (shown to 2024)

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Conflict between Russia and Ukraine began in 2014, when Russia seized and annexed Crimea and backed separatists in the eastern Donbas region. On 24 February 2022 Russia launched a full-scale invasion from the north, east and south, which President Vladimir Putin called a 'special military operation'.

Ukrainian resistance defeated the attack on Kyiv, and Russian forces withdrew from the north in April, leaving evidence of war crimes. Russia took Mariupol and much of the south-east, but Ukrainian counteroffensives in late 2022 recaptured large areas around Kharkiv and Kherson. Russia declared the annexation of four Ukrainian regions in September 2022, a move rejected internationally. In 2023 Russia took Bakhmut and a Ukrainian counteroffensive made little progress; in 2024 Russian forces advanced slowly in the east, while Ukraine launched an incursion into Russia's Kursk region, where North Korean troops joined the fighting. In 2023 the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin. The war continues, with Russia occupying about a fifth of Ukraine.

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Dates
24 February 2022 – ongoing (shown to 2024)
Casualties
Military killed and wounded are estimated in the hundreds of thousands on each side, and the UN had verified at least 12,340 civilian deaths by 30 November 2024, a figure it says is an undercount.

The sides

Ukraine

Russia and North Korea

Timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

  1. Putin recognises the Donetsk and Luhansk 'people's republics'

    After massing between 169,000 and 190,000 troops on Ukraine's borders, including in Belarus, Putin recognised the independence of the two Russian-backed separatist entities in eastern Ukraine on 21 February 2022. They had been at war with Ukrainian forces since 2014. The next day Russia sent troops into the areas they held, describing them as peacekeepers. Western governments responded with the first new sanctions.

  2. Russia launches a full-scale invasion

    At dawn on 24 February Putin announced a 'special military operation', and missile strikes hit cities across Ukraine. Russian forces advanced from Belarus towards Kyiv, from the north-east towards Kharkiv, and from Crimea into the south. Airborne troops attacked Hostomel airfield near the capital. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared martial law and general mobilisation and stayed in Kyiv, and millions of Ukrainians began to flee.

  3. Russian airstrike destroys the Mariupol drama theatre

    Russian forces encircled Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov, in the first days of the war and subjected it to constant bombardment, cutting off water, power and food. On 16 March an airstrike destroyed the city's drama theatre, where hundreds of civilians were sheltering; the word 'children' had been painted in large letters outside. The UN confirmed 1,348 civilian deaths in the siege and believes the real toll is thousands higher.

  4. Russian withdrawal from Kyiv region reveals killings in Bucha

    The advance on Kyiv stalled in early March, and a Ukrainian counteroffensive from late March forced Russian forces to withdraw from the north, completed by 7 April. When Ukrainian troops re-entered the suburb of Bucha on 1 April they found bodies of civilians in the streets. The UN documented at least 73 unlawful killings there, with more under investigation; Ukrainian authorities recovered 458 bodies. Russia denied responsibility.

  5. Mariupol falls as Azovstal defenders surrender

    The last Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol held out for weeks in the tunnels of the Azovstal steelworks. After evacuations of civilians and wounded soldiers, the remaining troops surrendered, the last on 20 May, and Russia took full control of the ruined city. Its capture gave Russia a land corridor from the Donbas to Crimea. In the summer Russian forces also took Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in Luhansk region.

  6. Black Sea Grain Initiative signed in Istanbul

    Russia's blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports had trapped millions of tonnes of grain and pushed up world food prices. On 22 July Ukraine and Russia signed separate agreements with Turkey and the UN in Istanbul, allowing grain ships to sail through a protected corridor. The deal let Ukraine resume large-scale exports. Russia briefly suspended its participation in October 2022 and finally withdrew on 17 July 2023, after which Ukraine kept shipping grain through its own corridor.

  7. Ukraine's Kharkiv counteroffensive

    On 6 September Ukrainian forces, equipped with Western-supplied weapons including HIMARS rocket launchers, broke through thinly held Russian lines in Kharkiv region. Within days they had retaken Balakliia, Kupiansk and the logistics hub of Izium, recapturing thousands of square kilometres. It was the largest Ukrainian gain since the defence of Kyiv. On 21 September Putin announced a partial mobilisation of 300,000 reservists, and many Russian men fled abroad to avoid the call-up.

  8. Russia proclaims the annexation of four Ukrainian regions

    After referendums held under occupation and condemned as shams by Ukraine and Western governments, Putin announced on 30 September the annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, even though Russian forces did not control all of them. The UN General Assembly later declared the annexations invalid, and Ukraine and its allies regard them as illegal. Russia had already annexed Crimea in 2014 after a disputed referendum.

  9. Ukrainian troops enter Kherson

    Kherson was the only regional capital Russia had captured since February. After months of Ukrainian strikes on bridges and supply lines across the Dnipro, Russia announced a withdrawal to the river's east bank, and Ukrainian troops entered the city on 11 November to celebrations. The retreat left all territory west of the Dnipro in Ukrainian hands, but the city remained within range of Russian artillery across the river and was shelled for the rest of the war.

  10. Wagner Group captures Bakhmut

    The battle for Bakhmut, a small city in Donetsk region, became the longest and bloodiest of the war. Russia's Wagner Group, a private military company that recruited heavily among prisoners, led months of costly assaults. Wagner claimed full control on 20 May 2023 and Russia declared victory the next day. US officials estimated that Russia suffered about 100,000 casualties in the battle.

  11. Ukraine's southern counteroffensive begins

    In early June Ukraine launched a long-awaited counteroffensive, mainly in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions, aiming to cut the land corridor to Crimea. Its brigades, many trained and equipped by NATO countries, ran into deep minefields, trenches and drones in Russia's prepared defences. After months of fighting and heavy losses on both sides, Ukraine had regained only a few villages, and by late 2023 the front was again largely static.

  12. Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam

    Early on 6 June the Kakhovka Dam on the Dnipro, then held by Russian forces, was breached, draining its huge reservoir and flooding towns and villages downstream on both banks. About 600 square kilometres were flooded, and dozens to hundreds of people died, many in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky. Most independent analysts attribute the breach to Russian forces; Russia denied responsibility and blamed Ukraine.

  13. Wagner mutiny in Russia

    After months of feuding with Russia's defence ministry, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin led his fighters in a brief armed rebellion on 23–24 June, seizing the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don and advancing towards Moscow. A deal brokered by Belarus ended the mutiny within a day. Prigozhin was killed when his plane crashed two months later. The mutiny exposed divisions in Russia's war effort, and Wagner's fighters were absorbed into other forces.

  14. Russia captures Avdiivka

    With Western military aid delayed and Ukrainian forces short of artillery ammunition, Russia regained the initiative. After months of attacks, Ukrainian troops withdrew from the fortified town of Avdiivka, near Donetsk city, which Russian forces captured on 17 February 2024. It was Russia's largest gain since Bakhmut. Russian forces then advanced slowly westward towards the town of Pokrovsk through the year, at heavy cost in men and equipment.

  15. Russia opens a new offensive in Kharkiv region

    On 10 May Russian forces crossed the border into northern Kharkiv region, attacking towards Vovchansk and opening a new front that stretched Ukraine's defences. The advance was halted within weeks, after the United States allowed Ukraine to strike Russian forces just across the border with American weapons, but Kharkiv city, Ukraine's second largest, remained under heavy missile and glide-bomb attack throughout the year.

  16. Ukraine launches an incursion into Russia's Kursk region

    On 6 August about 11,000 Ukrainian troops crossed into Russia's Kursk region, seizing the town of Sudzha and hundreds of square kilometres: the largest foreign attack on Russian territory since the Second World War. Ukraine hoped to divert Russian forces from the Donbas and gain a bargaining chip. Russia assembled around 78,000 troops to push the Ukrainians back, and the fighting in Kursk continued into 2025.

  17. North Korean troops join the fighting in Kursk

    About 10,000–12,000 North Korean soldiers were sent to Russia in autumn 2024, arriving in the Kursk region in late October, and the first clashes with Ukrainian forces were reported in early November. Russia and North Korea acknowledged the deployment only in April 2025. At the end of 2024 the war continued, with Russia occupying about a fifth of Ukraine's territory.

Related

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Sources