Short answers, pulled from the story.
The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine was triggered by a large military build-up near Ukraine's borders in March and April 2021, followed by another massing from October 2021 onward. Vladimir Putin published an essay in July 2021 claiming Ukraine historically belongs to Russia and issued an ultimatum to the West in December 2021 demanding NATO end activity in Eastern Europe.
The main phase of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine began at dawn on the 24th of February with fighting starting in Luhansk Oblast at 3:40 a.m. Kyiv time near Milove. The attack launched four spearheads creating northern, southern, southeastern, and eastern fronts targeting cities like Kharkiv and Sumy.
Ukrainian forces under Oleksandr Syrskyi repulsed Russian attempts to take Kyiv using Western Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. By the 25th of March, a counteroffensive resulted in retaking towns including Makariv, and by the 2nd of April, Ukraine claimed to recapture the entire region around Kyiv including Irpin, Bucha, and Hostomel.
Military analysts attribute the failure of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine to unworkable concepts of operations that failed to anticipate sustained Ukrainian defense. Reports from 2022 and 2025 criticize the excessive reliance on subversion, rigid Soviet-style command structures, and spreading forces too thinly across multiple objectives without contingency planning.
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, over seventy sovereign states and the European Union delivered humanitarian aid while nearly fifty countries plus the EU provided military support. Sanctions included banning Russian aircraft from EU airspace, removing certain banks from the SWIFT system, and shifting Russia's oil exports to non-sanctioning countries like India.