One year since the beginning of the war in Ukraine

December 2021-January 2022. A concentration of the Russian armed forces near the border of Ukraine.

February 18, 2022: Evacuation of the population from the so -called DPR and LPR began.

February 21, 2022: Putin signs decree on recognition of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states.

On February 24, at dawn at 03:40 a.m., the first Russian tanks appeared in the Lugansk region of Ukraine. At 04:35 in the Sumy region the first missiles fell.

At 04:50 Moscow time, Vladimir Putin released a video message in which he said that Russia had begun a "special military operation" in Ukraine. Western allies of Ukraine had warned Kyiv for months that Russia was planning a full -scale war. Nonetheless Putin’s decision was a shock to many around the world.

At about five o'clock in the morning, Kyiv time, Russian troops invaded the territory of Ukraine from three directions: from the Russian Federation, Crimea and Belarus. The attack also began from the direction so-called Lugansk and Donetsk republics.

By five in the morning, the first missiles fell in Kyiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne, Lutsk, Odessa, Kharkov, Nikolaev, Mariupol, Zaporozhye, Dnieper and dozens of other cities in Ukraine.

The Russians struck military and infrastructure facilities throughout Ukraine. On the first day of the invasion, the battle for the GOSTEL airfield began seven kilometers from Kyiv.

By the end of the first day of the war, Russian troops had penetrated deep into the northern regions of Ukraine and began to advance to Kyiv.

It was a long day for the Ukrainians. There was uncertainty, everyone was waiting for some announcement, they still hoped that someone would stop it. The transport stations were filled with crowds of those hoping to escape.

February 25, 19:00: President Zelensky recorded his famous video appeal to show that he was still in Kyiv.

February 28: according to The Times, the Wagner mercenary group sent 400 mercenaries to Kyiv to kill President Zelensky.

February 28: the first stream of Ukrainian refugees, mainly women and children, reach the borders of Poland and other neighboring countries. Thousands of cars line up on the border. People wait days to reach Poland. Most are women, children and the elderly, as men of fighting age were forbidden from leaving the country.

February 28: The first round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations takes place in Belarus without result.

March 1: Bombs fall in the center of Kharkov. The battle for Kharkov lasts until May, when Russian troops retreat north of the city.

March 2: the Russian army announces that it has occupied Melitopol, Zaporizhzhya region. On March 2, thousands of people oppose the occupation of Melitopol.

March 3: the Russian army occupies Kherson. The city was the first district center captured. By March 15 the Russians had occupied the entire Kherson region. On March 5, an anti-occupation rally was held in Kherson. Anti-Russian demonstrations in Kherson and Melitopol continue until April.

Soon, the Russian occupation authorities stopped broadcasting Ukrainian television channels in occupied territories, replaced by Russian television. Internet traffic in the Kherson region was redirected to Russian servers.

In July temporary departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation begin to operate in both regions. The authorities appointed by Moscow announce that they will hold a referendum on incorporation of the occupied regions of Ukraine into Russia. At the same time, Ukrainian partisan resistance appears in Melitopol and its environs.

March 3: On the eighth day of the war, the occupation forces occupy the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, one of the largest in Europe.

March 2: the blockade of Mariupol (Donetsk region) begins, which lasts more than two months. The city is left without water, heat and food. Civilian infrastructure regularly attacked.

March 4: Russian troops advance to Kyiv. The main bridge across the Irpen River was destroyed by Ukrainians to stop the advance, but it also complicated evacuation. According to the Ukrainian authorities, when trying to leave the city hundreds of civilians died.

March 9: Russian troops bomb a maternity ward in Mariupol; seventeen injured. A pregnant woman and her unborn child were killed

March 16: Mariupol Regional Drama Theater is bombed, in which, according to local authorities, many had taken refuge from the bombing ⁠— 1,000 to 1,200 civilians. On March 25, the City Council said that at least 300 people had been killed in the theater.

March 18: Fighting begins for the Mariupol Metallurgical Plant "Azovstal". It becomes the main center of resistance of the Ukrainian army in Mariupol. About 3000 military personnel and at least 200 civilians hide in the factory. The siege of Mariupol continues until May 20, when the defenders of Azovstal surrender at the command of the Ukrainian military leadership.

According to the UN, 90% of Mariupol residential buildings and 60% of private houses are destroyed during the battle for Mariupol. There is information about mass deportation of residents to Russia. During the siege of Mariupol at least 10,000 are killed, according to some estimates.

March 10-29: March 10, after several fruitless rounds of negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian delegations, a meeting of foreign ministers from Ukraine and Russia takes place in Antalya, Turkey.

On March 29, negotiations are held in Istanbul. Russia announces it will reduce military activity in the environs of Chernigov and Kyiv in order to "increase mutual trust." Moscow also states that Ukraine “confirmed its desire for neutral and non-nuclear status” ⁠— conditions insisted on by the Kremlin. Ukraine invites Russia to forego a military resolution of the situation.
However, after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions, multiple cases of monstrous cruelty toward the civilian population are discovered. Russian-Ukrainian negotiations come to a standstill.

March 29: with the outbreak of war, Western media call the city of Mikolaev (Nikolaev) one of the main strategic goals of Russia. Its capture will open the way for Russian troops to Odessa, and will bring them closer to the border with the separatist Transnistria, which is faithful to Russia. This would give Russia an additional land corridor.

Prior to this, at the end of February and early March, the head of the region Vitaly Kim announced successful counter-offensives. The city had been subjected to mass bombing many times, including airstrikes on civilian objects. On March 11-12, several clinics are bombed. On March 29, a rocket falls on the regional administration building; 37 people die.

March 31: Ukrainian armed forces managed to defeat the Russians near Kyiv. The liberation of individual villages of Zaporizhzhya, Kharkov, Kherson, Chernihiv regions, as well as Irpen. The Russian army leaves the north of Ukraine.

April 1: occupation of Izyum

April 2: one of the most important days in this year of war. The Russian army retreats to the Kyiv and Chernihiv districts. Ukrainians free Bucha, Motin, Irpen. The Ukrainian army and journalists on the scene see horrors.

The city is full of corpses. Most of the dead are in civilian clothes. On the roads, in the yards of houses are bodies. Many have hands behind their backs; there are signs of torture. A mass grave with dozens of corpses is discovered near a church in Bucha. Numerous investigations find that the Russian military shot civilians without any reason. It is discovered that the Russian occupation was accompanied by plunder and mass execution.

Similar tragedies occur in other cities - Irpen, Borodyanka. But the most terrifying symbol of cruelty, inhumanity and war crimes by Russia in Ukraine is Bucha. In response, the US and UK demand Russia’s exclusion from the UN Council for Human Rights. The President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky called the tragedy in Bucha genocide.

April 8: bombing of the railway station in Kramatorsk. Russian shells hit the station at 10:30 local time. There were many civilians at the station attempting to evacuate, as information on the preparation of a large -scale attack by Russian troops to the east of Ukraine spread. 60 people were killed and at least 100 were injured. One of the largest airstrikes since the beginning of the war.

April 13: a Neptune missile launched by the Ukrainian Navy sinks the flagship cruiser of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet.

April 23: The occupation forces launch several missiles at Odessa - two deflected by air defense, the rest falling onto a military facility and two residential buildings. In one of them, journalist Valery Goldan, her elderly mother and three month old daughter Kira are killed.

May 20. The battle for Azovstal, which began in Mariupol on March 18, lasts more than two months. Several thousand people, including the Armed Forces of Ukraine, are fighters of the Azov National Guard regiment, military personnel of the territorial defense detachment, as well as civilians, all hidden underground for almost two months in the construction of Azovstal.

May 20. The battle for Azovstal, which began in Mariupol on March 18, lasts more than two months. Several thousand people, including the Armed Forces of Ukraine, are fighters of the Azov National Guard regiment, military personnel of the territorial defense detachment, as well as civilians, all hidden underground for almost two months in the construction of Azovstal.

Due to the complexity of the operation Russia refused to storm the plant; it was reported that Putin himself made this decision. Moscow limited itself to a massive bombing of the area. Two months later, not a single intact building remained in the area. On April 28, after the bombing of a field hospital at the plant, it was reported that the number of wounded among the defenders of Azovstal was over 60.

On May 20 an agreement is reached between Moscow and Kyiv, and the evacuation of people from Azovstal to the occupied Donetsk region begins. 2,439 people at the plant are sent to Russian territory. The General Staff of Ukraine said the decision was made "to save the lives of personnel." The garrison fulfilled its combat mission and did not allow Russia to capture the plant.

June 27: at about 16:00 Kyiv time in Kremenchug, Poltava region, two powerful explosions. One of the missiles hit the Amstor shopping center, reducing it to ashes. 21 died, more than 50 injured.

June 30: After massive Ukrainian shelling, the Russian military completely abandons Zmeinsky Island. On the liberated island, Ukrainian fighters find a cat which survived there for four months.

On the first day of the war, the island had already become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. Ukrainian border guards did not lay down their weapons. “Russian warship, go to hell!” - the border guards answered the Moscow cruiser which demanded their surrender.

July 3: Lisichansk. The attack on Lisichansk was part of a large-scale Russian offensive in the Donbass, which the Russian Ministry of Defense had announced in spring. However, this “large -scale attack” did not take place. According to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, there was no significant advance after Lisichansk.

July 14: the Russian army at 11AM bombs the center of the Ukrainian city of Vinnitsa, 400 kilometers from the front. Twenty-three people died at the scene, five more died later in the hospital. More than a hundred people were injured; many of them received serious burns. The house of officers, an administrative building, a private clinic were destroyed, residential buildings were damaged, and a shell hit a parking lot where there were many people.

Among the dead were 8-year-old Cyril, 7-year-old Maxim and 4-year-old Lisa. Shortly before the explosion, Lisa's mother posted on Instagram a video in which she leads the girl to a speech therapy class located in a bombed-out building. A few days later, Elena Zelenskaya, the wife of the Ukrainian president, brought a photograph of Lisa to the US Congress and urged the world to help Ukraine "stop this terror."

July 29: in the so -called Donetsk Republic there were explosions in the village of Eleenovka where Ukrainian prisoners were being held. 53 people were killed ⁠— captured Ukrainians, most of them Azov fighters. According to Ukrainian intelligence, the bombing was carried out by Wagner. The UN created a special mission to investigate.

August 9. Bombings in Crimea. On the 9th at the village of Novofedorovka, on the 16th in the Simferopol district, as well as in the Zhanka district. On August 18-20, explosions occurred in Kerch and Yevpatoria and in the area of the Belbek airfield. The Russians first stated that they were targeting ammunition, but later they mentioned the word "sabotage". Many Russians there on vacation in August left the peninsula through the Crimean bridge.

August 12: Armed Forces of Ukraine struck the Antonovsky bridge in the Kherson region. Through this bridge, Russia supplied its military units with equipment.

August 24: Russians fired rockets at the Chaplino railway station in the Dnipropetrovsk region. As a result, 25 people died and about 50 were injured.

September 8: Armed Forces of Ukraine go on counter-offensive.

September 10: the liberation of Izyum and Kupyansk. In September, the Ukrainian counterattack in the east of the country regains most of the territory and forces Russian troops to leave the Kharkov region. Moscow spun this as “regrouping”, but it didn’t work out - things went so badly that the military leaders were publicly criticized by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and the head of Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

September 21: Historical exchange of prisoners ⁠— 215 prisoners of war, including 108 Azov fighters, exchanged for Viktor Medvedchuk and 55 Russian prisoners of war. The commander of the Azov regiment Denis Prokopenko and Sergey Volina returned to their families.

September 21. After several defeats in Ukraine, Putin announces mobilization in Russia, causing a mass exodus of military-age men from the country. Those conscripted were poorly trained and equipped.

September 30: Putin announced the accession of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions to the Russian Federation. Only North Korea recognized the results of the “referendum” in the annexed territories of Ukraine. The Government of Ukraine applied for an accelerated accession to NATO.

October 1-5: Lyman liberated. Counter-offensive shifts to Kherson. Arkhangelsk, Dudchan, Davydov Brody liberated.

October 8: A powerful explosion on the Crimean bridge, the only bridge connecting Russia to the Crimean peninsula. The road bridge across the Kerch Strait is of strategic importance and is highly symbolic, opened by Putin in 2018, four years after Russia annexed Crimea.

The explosion on the Crimean bridge coincided with Putin's birthday.

October 10: massive missile strike on Ukraine; nineteen dead. More than 3,500 towns were left without electricity. The cultural and educational infrastructure of Ukraine suffered.

Russia, which failed to achieve military success, began to target critical energy infrastructure in Ukraine, a new stage in the war.

November 11: the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberate the city of Kherson.

November 15: in response to the military success of the Ukrainian army, Russia continues attacks on civilian infrastructure of Ukraine. A wave of bombing sweeps through the country. Using rockets, artillery shells and drones of Iranian manufacture, Moscow began to destroy Ukrainian power plants, leaving millions of people without electricity and water.

December 5: attack on Diaghilev and Engels airfields in Russia.

December 16: Another attack on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.

December 21: Vladimir Zelensky flies to the USA and meets with President Joe Biden in the White House and speaks to the US Congress. This was the first foreign trip of the President of Ukraine during the war.

Before the arrival of Zelensky, the Biden administration announced that it would send Ukraine an additional $ 2 billion in defense aid, including the new Patriot air defense system.

December 25: after several weeks of geopolitical disputes, Germany announced that it would transfer Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv and would not forbid other European countries from exporting other German-made combat tanks to Ukraine. On the same day, Biden announced that the United States would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. This step was perceived as a breakthrough in the West’s military support for Ukraine and signaling the growing confidence of the West that Ukraine could regain occupied territory.

The first Himars arrived in Ukraine on June 23. According to military experts, in many ways it was this that decided Ukraine’s successful counter-offensive.

December 31: Another massive attack on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.

February 20: the American president suddenly arrives in Kyiv. Standing next to Zelensky, Biden recalled how they talked on the phone when Russian troops invaded Ukraine. “A year later, Kyiv is worth it. Ukraine is worth it. Democracy is worth it. Americans are on your side, like the whole world,” Biden declared.

Zelensky said that Biden's visit brought Ukraine closer to victory.