TThe conflict between Russia and Ukraine that began in 2014 escalated into an all-out war last year amid strong global condemnation. Russia’s act of aggression, triggered by major sanctions by Ukraine’s allies, has fueled economic insecurity around the world and transformed the post-Cold War geopolitical order.
As of 12 February 2023, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 18,955 civilian casualties in Ukraine, of which 7,199 were killed.
The pictures below give an overview of the important events that happened in the last one year.
Photo: Getty Images
Residents of Kiev leave the city after pre-aggressive missile strikes by Russian and Belarusian armed forces in the capital of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his decision to launch a “special military operation” in eastern Ukraine on February 24. Although he said there were no plans to occupy Ukrainian territory, within minutes of Mr. Putin’s announcement, explosions were reported in Kiev, Kharkiv, Odesa, and the Donbas, thus signaling a full-scale war between the two countries. is starting
Photo: AP
In this screen grab from a video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the nation in Moscow on February 24, 2022. Russian troops launched their expected invasion of Ukraine, as Mr Putin brushed aside international condemnation and sanctions and warned other countries that any attempt to intervene would have “consequences you have never seen”. shall be.”
Photo: Getty Images
People wait for buses at a bus station as they try to evacuate the city on February 24, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. According to UNHCR, more than eight million Ukrainian refugees were registered across Europe last year.
Photo: AP
Police officers look over the collected fragments of Russian rockets that were hit in Kharkiv, Ukraine on December 3, 2022. On February 28, 2022, a series of rocket attacks by the Russian Armed Forces killed 9 civilians and injured 37 during the Battle of Kharkiv. . The Russian army used cluster munitions in the attack. Due to the indiscriminate nature of these weapons used in densely populated areas, Human Rights Watch called the attacks a potential war crime.
Photo: Reuters
People remove the rubble of a military base building, which was destroyed by an airstrike on February 28, 2022, in the town of Okhtyrka, in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian ground forces. On January 1, 2022, more than 90 people were killed, including 75 Ukrainian soldiers and 10 civilians. More than 600 Indian students were stranded at the university in Somme before they were evacuated.
Photo: AP
Russian trenches and firing sites sit in the highly radioactive Red Forest adjacent to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near Chernobyl, Ukraine, on April 16, 2022. In the early hours, thousands of Russian tanks and troops entered the forested exclusion zone around the plant. The February 24 attack on Ukraine wiped out highly contaminated soil from the site of the 1986 accident, the world’s worst nuclear disaster. Russian troops began leaving the nuclear plant after soldiers received “significant doses” of radiation at the highly contaminated site.
Photo: AP
Funeral workers carry a coffin containing the body of an unidentified civilian who died during the Russian occupation in February-March 2022 in the Bocha community area. In Bucha, a neighboring town of Arpin, just 37 kilometers northwest of the capital, Reuters journalists saw the bodies. The hands and feet of a number of corpses lay in the streets, and in the churchyard from an open grave. In Bucha alone, hundreds of people were killed, leading Ukraine to declare it a massacre.
Photo: Reuters
A view of the destroyed facility on the land of the Azostaal steel mill during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. On May 21, 2022, Russia claimed Mariupol, one of the biggest victories in its war with Ukraine, after a nearly three-month siege that took much of the strategic port city. Ruined by smoking.
Photo: Reuters
A view of the destroyed facility on the land of the Azostaal steel mill during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. The Azovstal steel plant, a Soviet-era structure, has become a symbol of resistance, with around 600 soldiers hiding in underground tunnels and bunkers as rearguards to prevent Russian troops from taking full control of the strategically located port city. They were fighting a war.
Photo: AP
Smoke rises from an air defense base after an apparent Russian attack in Mariupol, Ukraine, on February 24, 2022. During the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine invasion of southern Ukraine, the city of Odessa and its surrounding area is devastated. Russian forces have been targeted by shelling and airstrikes on several occasions since the conflict began, mainly from Russian warships based in the Black Sea. The city has also been targeted by Russian cruise missiles. As of July 26, 2022, eleven civilians have been killed as a result of rocket attacks in Odessa.
Photo: Reuters
Pro-Russian soldiers drive armored vehicles on a road outside Ukraine’s southern port city of Mariupol during the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Photo: Reuters
A sailor watches the Russian missile cruiser Moskva in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Ukraine. Russia’s guided-missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the country’s Black Sea fleet, was sunk on April 14. The ship, which would normally carry about 500 sailors, was located in the Black Sea off the Ukrainian port of Odessa at the time. Explosion The Russian Ministry of Defense acknowledged that the Moscow sank in stormy seas after a large fire broke out on board the ship, which led to the explosion. Meanwhile, Ukraine has claimed that the fire started after its anti-ship missile hit the Neptune ship.
Photo: Reuters
Ukrainian service members load ammunition during offensive and assault drills during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine. Nine days after its disastrous military operation, Russia seized Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on March 4 by shelling and setting it on fire.
Photo: AP
Russian rockets fired at Ukraine from Russia’s Belgorod region are pictured in Kharkiv, Ukraine, at dawn. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was one of the initial targets of the Russian offensive. Russian troops made a rapid advance toward the city gates in the early days of the war, but were halted by Ukrainian resistance. After failing to capture the city, the Russians then attempted to encircle it and continued shelling the defensive lines. But by May, as their main battlefront shifted east to Donetsk and Luhansk, Russian troops retreated to the outskirts of the city of Kharkiv.
Photo: Reuters
In Bakhmut, Donetsk region of Ukraine, in the midst of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, a hole is visible where a missile strike hit a residential area. The Battle of Donbass is an ongoing military operation that is part of a broader eastern Ukraine campaign for a Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The war began on 18 April 2022 between the armed forces of Russia and Ukraine for control of the Donbas provinces (oblasts) of Donetsk and Luhansk. As of June 23, 2022, Russian authorities claimed control of 55% of Donetsk Oblast, and as of July 3, Russia claimed control of all of Luhansk Oblast, Russian and separatist forces in Mariupol, Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Controlled the cities of Robison.
Photo: Reuters
In this handout photo released on Feb. 16, 2023, Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) pose for a photo after being exchanged at an undisclosed location, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Photo: Reuters
A Ukrainian soldier looks on from inside a tank at a position in the Donetsk region, as Russia’s offensive on Ukraine continues.
Photo: Getty Images
A girl stands next to a graffiti of a child throwing a man to the floor in a judo costume on a destroyed building in Borodynka, Ukraine on November 14, 2022. In early March 2022, Kherson was captured by Russia through heavy fighting.
Photo: Reuters
A Ukrainian soldier carries an anti-tank grenade launcher captured at a former position of Russian troops in the village of Bilhodtne, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine in the Kherson region. The Battle of Kherson proved to be the starting point for the capture and occupation of the southern part of Ukraine. Ukraine then launched a lightning counterattack in the northeast of the country, which saw dramatic territorial gains. Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson allowed Ukraine to recapture nearby areas captured shortly after the Russian invasion.
Photo: Reuters
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi visited the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Russian troops marched into the radioactive Chernobyl fallout zone on their way to the Ukrainian capital in February. They retreated after soldiers received “significant doses” of radiation at the highly contaminated site.
Photo: Reuters
Ukrainian border guards are seen at their positions near the border with Belarus amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine in the Volyn region. In October 2022, the leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, claimed that Ukraine was plotting to invade his country and announced a joint military operation with Moscow. Mr Lukashenko also told Russian journalists that the Belarusian army and its 70,000 men would form the “base” of the joint force.
Photo: Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gestures to the media during a summit of European leaders, during his second international visit since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on February 9, 2023, in Brussels, Belgium.
Photo: AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speak during their meeting at the Novo-Ugarevo State Residence, outside Moscow, Russia, on February 17, 2023. There has been continuous Russian and Belarusian military activity in Belarus for months, a Kremlin ally that Moscow’s troops used as a launchpad for their failed attack on Kiev in February.
Photo: Reuters
U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hug after visiting a memorial wall to pay tribute to Ukrainian soldiers killed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 20, 2023 in Kiev, Ukraine.
