The Russia-Ukraine war’s many twists & turns

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, confirming Western warnings but taking much of the world – including Ukrainians – by surprise. The attack came from the east, north and south of Ukraine. Airborne troops landed at Hostomel military airport 20km north of Kyiv, and other Russian troops rapidly broke out of Crimea to secure Kherson in southern Ukraine. But the Ukrainians dug in and slowed down the Russian advance. Most notably a 64-km-long Russian armoured convoy approaching Kyiv was stuck for days, frustrating Moscow’s plans of a siege.

Russian flagship sunk

By the middle of March 2022 it was clear that the Russian operation wasn’t going to plan. Their offensive operations north of Kyiv and in northeast Ukraine were bogged down by logistics. While Russian units were forced to take defensive positions, the Ukrainians showed they could attack. The sinking of the Moskva – flagship of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet – on April 14, Ukrainian attacks behind Russian lines in the east in March and April, and the recapture of Snake Island after 126 days of Russian occupation in June, gradually gave Ukraine an edge.


Russia gains ground

But Russia was making gains in southern Ukraine. After capturing Kherson, Russian forces continued to bombard Mariupol on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov. It became clear that Russia was trying to establish a land bridge linking Crimea to the Donbas and western Russia.

Steel plant’s defence

Like the Greeks who defended the pass of Thermopylae against a far larger Persian army, Ukrainian fighters held off the Russians at the vast Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol for weeks. More than 260 Ukrainians finally surrendered in the middle of May after destroying enormous Russian military resources. Azovstal forced Moscow to reconfigure its overall plans.

Luhansk falls

Russia meanwhile continued to make territorial gains in Donetsk and Luhansk.
Putin declared a Russian victory in Luhansk when the city of Lysychansk fell in early July, but Russia’s gains in the rest of Donbas have been slow and incremental since then.

Russia battered in Kharkiv
By August, Western weapons like the HIMARS multiple rocket launcher and the Javelin anti-tank system had increased Ukraine’s firepower. In September, Ukrainian forces launched a swift counteroffensive in the Kharkiv sector, retaking 8,000 sq km of territory by the middle of the month. It was a terrible reverse for Russia and showed that Ukrainians could pose a serious challenge.

Russia annexes four regions

Against the backdrop of its September losses, Russia held ‘referendums’ in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and announced it was annexing them. It also shifted its strategy towards targeting Ukrainian civilian infrastructure such as power supply, heating and waterworks with Iranian-made drones like the Mohajer-6 and the Shahed-136 at the onset of winter.
Ukraine liberates Kherson

By November 11, Ukrainian forces had liberated Kherson in southern Ukraine, but Russian forces continue to shell it from across the Dnieper River.