Timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

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Timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine in a steep escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War. The campaign had been preceded by a Russian military buildup since early 2021 [1] and numerous Russian demands for security measures and legal prohibitions against Ukraine joining NATO. [2]

Contents

Prelude

On 10 November 2021, the United States reported an unusual movement of Russian troops near Ukraine's borders. [3] On 7 December, US President Joe Biden warned President of Russia Vladimir Putin of "strong economic and other measures" if Russia attacks Ukraine. [4] On 17 December 2021, Putin proposesd a prohibition on Ukraine joining NATO, which Ukraine rejected. [4]

On 17 January 2022, Russian troops began arriving in Russia's ally Belarus, ostensibly "for military exercises". [5] On 24 January, NATO put troops on standby. [5] On 25 January, Russian military exercises involving 6,000 troops and 60 jets take place in Russia near Ukraine and Crimea. [5] On 10 February 2023, Russia and Belarus began 10 days of military maneuvers. [5] Fighting escalated in separatist regions of eastern Ukraine on the 17th. [5] On 21 February, Vladimir Putin officially ordered Russian forces to enter the separatist republics in eastern Ukraine. [6] He also announced Russian recognition of the two pro-Russian breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine (the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic). [7] [8]

Initial invasion

Southeastern front

2022 Ukrainian counteroffensives

Second stalemate

2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive

In early June 2023, Ukraine launched a substantial counteroffensive against Russian forces occupying its territory with a long-term goal of breaching the frontlines. [9] [10] [11]

Second winter campaign

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russia–Ukraine relations</span> Bilateral relations

There are currently no diplomatic or bilateral relations between Russia and Ukraine. The two states have been at war since Russia invaded the Crimean peninsula in February 2014, and Russian-controlled armed groups seized Donbas government buildings in May 2014. Following the Ukrainian Euromaidan in 2014, Ukraine's Crimean peninsula was occupied by unmarked Russian forces, and later illegally annexed by Russia, while pro-Russia separatists simultaneously engaged the Ukrainian military in an armed conflict for control over eastern Ukraine; these events marked the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War. In a major escalation of the conflict on 24 February 2022, Russia launched a large scale military invasion across a broad front, causing Ukraine to sever all formal diplomatic ties with Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ukraine–NATO relations</span> Bilateral relations

Relations between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) started in 1991 following Ukraine's independence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Ukraine first joined NATO's Partnership for Peace program in 1994, later joining the Planning and Review Process in 1997 and the NATO-Ukraine Commission in 1998. Although Ukraine initially declared neutrality and non-alignment with military blocs after independence, it later signaled interest in eventual NATO membership. After Russia's annexation of Crimea and support for separatist forces in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Ukraine began actively pursuing NATO membership, formally declaring it a strategic policy objective in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russo-Ukrainian War</span> Armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine since 2014

The Russo-Ukrainian War is an ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, which began in February 2014. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia occupied and annexed Crimea from Ukraine and supported pro-Russian separatists fighting the Ukrainian military in the Donbas war. The first eight years of conflict also included naval incidents, cyberwarfare, and heightened political tensions. In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and began occupying more of the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War in Donbas</span> 2014–2022 war between Ukraine and Russia

The war in Donbas, or Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the Donbas region of Ukraine. The war began 12 April 2014, when a fifty-man commando unit headed by Russian citizen Igor Girkin seized Sloviansk in Donetsk oblast. The Ukrainian military launched an operation against them. It continued until it was subsumed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little green men (Russo-Ukrainian War)</span> Troops without insignia who participated in the 2014 Crimean crisis

The "little green men" were Russian soldiers who were masked and wore unmarked uniforms upon the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014. They were active just before and during the Russian annexation of Crimea and carried regular weapons and equipment, but were always masked and wore distinctly unmarked green military fatigues. Russia, which had been denying any involvement in Ukraine prior to the annexation, used these little green men to give it plausible deniability on the international stage.

Many states and international organisations reacted to the war in Donbas, a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War that took place from 2014 to 2022 in the Donbas historical region in eastern Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine</span>

The Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine are areas of Ukraine that are currently controlled by Russia in the course of the Russo-Ukrainian War. In Ukrainian law, they are defined as the "temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prelude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine</span> Period of escalating tension between Russia and Ukraine

In March and April 2021, prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces began massing thousands of personnel and military equipment near Russia's border with Ukraine and in Crimea, representing the largest mobilisation since the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. This precipitated an international crisis due to concerns over a potential invasion. Satellite imagery showed movements of armour, missiles, and heavy weaponry towards the border. The troops were partially withdrawn by June 2021, though the infrastructure was left in place. A second build-up began in October 2021, this time with more soldiers and with deployments on new fronts; by December over 100,000 Russian troops were massed around Ukraine on three sides, including Belarus from the north and Crimea from the south. Despite the Russian military build-ups, Russian officials from November 2021 to 20 February 2022 repeatedly denied that Russia had plans to invade Ukraine.

Many states, international organizations, and civil society actors worldwide had expressed their reactions to the then-escalating crisis between Russia and Ukraine that started in March 2021. The crisis eventually culminated in a Russian invasion of Ukraine, beginning on 24 February 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disinformation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine</span>

As part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian state and state-controlled media have spread disinformation in their information war against Ukraine. Ukrainian media and politicians have also been accused of using propaganda and deception, although such efforts have been compared to the Russian disinformation campaign as more limited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian invasion of Ukraine</span> Ongoing military conflict in Eastern Europe

On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that started in 2014. The invasion became the largest attack on a European country since World War II. It is estimated to have caused tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties and hundreds of thousands of military casualties. By June 2022, Russian troops occupied about 20% of Ukrainian territory. From a population of 41 million in January 2022, about 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million had fled the country by April 2023, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. Extensive environmental damage caused by the war, widely described as an ecocide, contributed to food crises worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government and intergovernmental reactions to the Russian invasion of Ukraine</span>

The Russian invasion of Ukraine received widespread international condemnation, leading to new sanctions being imposed on Russia, which triggered a Russian financial crisis. Reactions among governments have most often been negative, with criticism and condemnation, particularly in Europe, the Americas, and Southeast Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">On conducting a special military operation</span> 2022 speech by Russian president Vladimir Putin

"On conducting a special military operation" was a televised broadcast by Russian president Vladimir Putin on 24 February 2022, announcing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

There have been several rounds of peace talks to halt the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022–present) and end the Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–present) in an armistice. The first meeting was held four days after the start of the invasion, on 28 February 2022, in Belarus. It concluded without result, with delegations from both sides returning to their capitals for consultations. A second and third round of talks took place on 3 and 7 March 2022, on the Belarus–Ukraine border, in an undisclosed location in the Gomel region of Belarus. A fourth and fifth round of talks were respectively held on 10 and 14 March in Antalya, Turkey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Address concerning the events in Ukraine</span> February 2022 speech by Vladimir Putin

"Address concerning the events in Ukraine" was a televised address by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 21 February 2022, announcing that the Russian government would recognise the Ukrainian separatist regions of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic as independent. During the speech, Putin also made a number of claims regarding Ukrainian history and Ukrainian domestic politics. The speech, which marked a significant escalation in the culminating Russo-Ukrainian crisis, was followed three days later by another speech declaring "a special military operation" in Ukraine—announcing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zeitenwende speech</span> 2022 speech by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

The Zeitenwende speech was an address delivered to the Bundestag by Olaf Scholz, the Chancellor of Germany, on 27 February 2022. His speech was a reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. Scholz described the attack as a "historic turning point" and announced that in response his government would use a €100 billion fund to significantly increase military spending, reversing Germany's previously cautious defence policy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts</span> 2022 annexation of an undefined area in Ukraine

On 30 September 2022, Russia, amid an ongoing invasion of Ukraine, unilaterally declared its annexation of areas in and around four Ukrainian oblasts—Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia. The boundaries of the areas to be annexed and their borders were not defined; Russian officials stated that they would be defined later. None of the oblasts were fully under Russian control at the time of the declaration, nor since. If limited to the areas then under Russian control the annexation would still be the largest in Europe since World War II.

This timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine covers the period from 24 February 2022, when Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine, to 7 April 2022 when fighting focused away from the north and towards the south and east of Ukraine.

This timeline of the prelude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine covers a period of heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine from early 2021 until the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of the Russo-Ukrainian War</span> Outline of the war between Russia and Ukraine since 2014

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Russo-Ukrainian War:

References

  1. Banco, Erin; Graff, Garret M.; Seligman, Lara; Toosi, Nahal; Ward, Alexander (24 February 2023). "'Something Was Badly Wrong': When Washington Realized Russia Was Actually Invading Ukraine". Politico Magazine. Archived from the original on 10 April 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  2. "Why is Russia invading Ukraine and what does Putin want?". BBC News. 24 February 2022. Archived from the original on 19 December 2021. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  3. "Soldiers, Separatists, Sanctions: A Timeline Of The Russia-Ukraine Crisis". Agence France-Presse. NDTV CONVERGENCE LIMITED. Agence France-Presse. 24 February 2022. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Soldiers, Separatists, Sanctions: A Timeline Of The Russia-Ukraine Crisis". Agence France-Presse. NDTV CONVERGENCE LIMITED. Agence France-Presse. 24 February 2022. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Soldiers, Separatists, Sanctions: A Timeline Of The Russia-Ukraine Crisis". Agence France-Presse. NDTV CONVERGENCE LIMITED. Agence France-Presse. 24 February 2022. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  6. Roth, Andrew; Borger, Julian (21 February 2022). "Putin orders troops into eastern Ukraine on 'peacekeeping duties'". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 21 February 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
  7. "Extracts from Putin's speech on Ukraine". Reuters . 21 February 2022. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  8. Putin, Vladimir (21 February 2022). "Address by the president of the Russian Federation". Kremlin.ru. Moscow. Archived from the original on 21 February 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  9. Sanchez, Raf; Parafeniuk, Anastasiia; O'Reilly, Bill (8 June 2023). "Ukraine launches counteroffensive against Russia". NBC News . Archived from the original on 8 June 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  10. Schmidt, Samantha (8 June 2023). "Ukrainian military begins counteroffensive to oust Russian occupiers" . The Washington Post . ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on 8 June 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  11. Further sources: