Short answers, pulled from the story.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine before 5 a.m. Kyiv time on the 24th of February 2022. Putin announced a "special military operation" in a speech, and missiles struck targets across Ukraine within minutes, making it the biggest attack on a European country since World War II.
Putin claimed the operation was to "protect the people" of the Russian-backed breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. He baselessly claimed that Ukrainian officials were neo-Nazis under Western control and that Russia sought the "demilitarisation and denazification" of Ukraine. He also denied the legitimacy of the Ukrainian state.
From a pre-war population of about 41 million, roughly 8 million Ukrainians were internally displaced and 6 to 7 million fled the country entirely. This created Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II.
The Moskva, flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, was struck on the 13th of April 2022 by two Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles, according to Ukrainian sources and a US senior official. The ship sank the following day. A US official confirmed on the 5th of May that American intelligence had assisted in the strike.
North Korea supplied Russia with ballistic missiles, launchers, and troops. In October 2024, Ukraine and South Korea reported that North Korean engineers had been deployed to the battlefield and had suffered casualties. Zelenskyy announced that Ukrainian intelligence believed 10,000 North Korean troops were preparing to join Russian forces.
The Kiel Institute tracked $380 billion in aid to Ukraine from January 2022 to January 2024. The United States set aside $175 billion to help Ukraine and provided more military assistance than any other single country. Estonia and Denmark contributed the most military aid measured as a share of their own GDP.