Russo-Ukrainian war (2022–present)
On the 24th of February 2022, Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation that started the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II. This event marked a major escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that began when Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thousands of military casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties. As of December 2025, Russian troops occupy almost 20% of Ukraine. From a population of 41 million, about 8 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced and 6, 7 million have fled the country, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II.
In late 2021, Russia massed troops near Ukraine's borders and issued demands to the West, including a ban on Ukraine ever joining NATO. After repeatedly denying having plans to attack Ukraine, on the 24th of February 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation, saying that it was to support the Russian-backed breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, whose paramilitary forces had been fighting Ukraine in the Donbas War since 2014. Putin espoused irredentist and imperialist views challenging Ukraine's legitimacy as a state, baselessly claimed that the Ukrainian government were neo-Nazis committing genocide against the Russian minority in the Donbas, and said that Russia's goal was to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine.
The historical context stretches back to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, when Russia and Ukraine maintained cordial relations. In return for security guarantees, Ukraine signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1994 and gave up its nuclear weapons. Russia, the US, and UK agreed in the Budapest Memorandum to respect Ukraine's sovereignty and borders. In 1999, Russia signed the Charter for European Security, affirming that every country had the right to choose or change its security arrangements and to join military alliances. In 2005, Putin said that if Ukraine wanted to join NATO, we will respect their choice.
In 2013, Ukraine's parliament approved finalising the European Union, Ukraine Association Agreement. Russia put pressure on Ukraine to reject the agreement and imposed economic sanctions on the country. Kremlin adviser Sergei Glazyev warned in September 2013 that if Ukraine signed the EU agreement, Russia would no longer acknowledge Ukraine's borders. In November, Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych suddenly withdrew from signing the agreement, choosing closer ties to Russia instead. This coerced withdrawal sparked massive protests known as Euromaidan, culminating in the Revolution of Dignity in February 2014. Almost 100 protesters were killed by state forces, most of them shot by police snipers.
The invasion began at dawn on the 24th of February. It was the biggest attack on a European country and first full-scale war in Europe since World War II. Russia launched a simultaneous ground and air attack. Missiles struck targets throughout Ukraine, and Russian troops invaded from the north, east, and south. Russia did not officially declare war. Immediately after the invasion began, Zelenskyy declared martial law in Ukraine in a video speech. The same evening, he ordered a general mobilisation of all Ukrainian males aged 18, 60, prohibiting them from leaving the country.
The first stage of the invasion was conducted on four fronts: one towards western Kyiv from Belarus by the Russian Eastern Military District, one deployed towards eastern Kyiv by the Central Military District (northeastern front), comprised the 41st Combined Arms Army and the 2nd Guards Combined Arms Army, one deployed towards Kharkiv, and a fourth, southern front originating in Crimea and Russia's Rostov oblast with an eastern axis towards Odesa and a western area of operations toward Mariupol. The invasion was unexpectedly met by fierce resistance. Russia failed to take Kyiv and was repulsed in the battles of Irpin, Hostomel, and Bucha.
Russian forces advanced into Chernihiv Oblast on the 24th of February, besieging its administrative capital within four days of fighting. Travelling along highways, Russian forces reached Brovary, an eastern suburb of Kyiv, on the 4th of March. The US contacted Zelenskyy and offered to help him flee, lest the Russian Army attempt to kidnap or kill him; Zelenskyy responded that The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride. By early March, Russian advances along the west side of the Dnipro were limited by Ukrainian defences. As of the 5th of March, a Russian convoy, reportedly long, had made little progress toward Kyiv.
On the 16th of March, Ukrainian forces began a counter-offensive. Unable to achieve a quick victory in Kyiv, Russian forces switched to indiscriminate bombing and siege warfare. On the 25th of March, a Ukrainian counter-offensive retook towns to the east and west of Kyiv. Russian troops in the Bucha area retreated north. Ukrainian forces entered the city on the 1st of April, and recaptured the region around Kyiv, and uncovered evidence of war crimes in Bucha. The Pentagon confirmed on the 6th of April that the Russian army had left Chernihiv Oblast; local authorities said Russian troops had left Sumy Oblast.
By the 17th of April, Russian progress on the southeastern front appeared impeded by Ukrainian forces in the large, heavily fortified Azovstal Iron and Steel Works and surrounding area in Mariupol. On the 19th of April Russia launched an eastern assault across a front extending from Kharkiv to Donetsk and Luhansk, with simultaneous missile attacks again directed at Kyiv and Lviv. An anonymous US Defence official called the Russian offensive minimal at best. By the 30th of May, disparities between Russian and Ukrainian artillery were apparent, with Ukrainian artillery vastly outgunned.
In late January 2023, fighting intensified in southern Zaporizhzhia Oblast, with both sides suffering heavy casualties. In nearby southern parts of Donetsk Oblast, an intense, three-week Russian assault near the coal-mining town of Vuhledar was called the largest tank battle of the war to date, and ended in disaster for Russian forces, who lost at least 130 tanks and armored personnel carriers according to Ukrainian commanders. The British Ministry of Defence stated that a whole Russian brigade was effectively annihilated.
Following defeat in Kherson and Kharkiv, Russian and Wagner forces focused on taking Bakhmut and breaking the half-year-long stalemate there since the start of the war. Russian forces sought to encircle the city, attacking from the north via Soledar. After taking heavy casualties, Russian and Wagner forces took control of Soledar on the 16th of January 2023. By early February 2023, Bakhmut was facing attacks from north, south and east, with the sole Ukrainian supply lines coming from Chasiv Yar to the west. On the 4th of March, Bakhmut's deputy mayor told news services that there was street fighting in the city. On the 20th of May 2023, the Wagner Group claimed full control over Bakhmut, and a victory in the battle was officially declared by Russia the next day, following which Wagner forces retreated from the city in place of regular Russian units.
In October 2023, it was reported that there were growing mutinies among Russian troops due to the extensive losses in Russian offensives around Avdiivka, with a lack of artillery, food, water and poor command also being reported. By November, British intelligence said that recent weeks had likely seen some of the highest Russian casualty rates of the war so far. On the 17th of February 2024, Russia captured Avdiivka, a longtime stronghold for Ukraine that had been described as a gateway to nearby Donetsk.
On the 6th of September 2022, Ukrainian forces launched a surprise counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, beginning near Balakliia, led by General Syrskyi. An emboldened Kyiv launched a counteroffensive the 12th of September around Kharkiv successful enough to make Russia admit losing key positions and for The New York Times to say that it dented the image of a Mighty Putin. Kyiv sought more arms from the West to sustain the counteroffensive.
On the 9th of November, defence minister Shoigu ordered Russian forces to leave part of Kherson Oblast, including the city of Kherson, and move to the eastern bank of the Dnieper. On the 11th of November, Ukrainian troops entered Kherson, as Russia completed its withdrawal. This meant that Russian forces no longer had a foothold on the west bank of the Dnieper. Ukrainian forces launched another surprise counteroffensive on the 6th of September in the Kharkiv Oblast near Balakliia led by General Syrskyi. By the 7th of September, Ukrainian forces had advanced into Russian-occupied territory and claimed to have recaptured approximately .
On the 6th of August 2024, Ukraine launched their first direct offensive into Russian territory, the largest of any pro-Ukrainian incursion since the invasion's inception, into the bordering Kursk Oblast. The main axis of the initial advance centred in the direction of Sudzha, from the border, which was reported by President Zelenskyy to have been captured on the 15th of August. Ukraine, taking advantage of the lack of experienced units and defences along the border with Kursk Oblast, was able to quickly seize territory in the opening days of the incursion.
The incursion caused Russia to divert thousands of troops from occupied Ukrainian territory to counter the threat, though not from Donetsk Oblast. Despite repeated deadlines set by Putin to push out Ukrainian troops, Russian forces had not done so by the end of January 2025, with advances in Donetsk Oblast being prioritised over the Kursk salient. However, by February 2025, Russian forces in Donetsk Oblast were described by the ISW as not being fully protected from the theatre-wide impacts of the incursion, with troops, armoured vehicles, artillery, and air defence systems being pulled away from Ukrainian sectors to reinforce the Russian forces in Kursk.
The United Nations Human Rights Office reports that Russia is committing severe human rights violations in occupied Ukraine. Russia's attacks on civilians, as well as the policies it has introduced in occupied territories, have led to allegations of genocide. The direct cost of the war for Russia has been over US$450 billion. The Russian invasion was met with international condemnation. The UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning the invasion and demanding a full Russian withdrawal. The International Court of Justice ordered Russia to halt military operations, and the Council of Europe expelled Russia.
Many countries imposed sanctions on Russia and its ally Belarus while providing large-scale humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. Protests occurred around the world, with anti-war protesters in Russia being met by mass arrests and greater media censorship. War-related disruption to Ukrainian agriculture and shipping worsened the world food crisis; war-related environmental damage was described as ecocide. The International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation into crimes against humanity, war crimes, abduction of Ukrainian children, and genocide against Ukrainians. The ICC issued arrest warrants for Putin and five other Russian officials.
Peace negotiations have stalled, and Russia has repeatedly refused calls for a ceasefire. As of the 21st of May 2022, Zelenskyy indicated that Ukraine had 700,000 service members on active duty fighting the Russian invasion. People physically blocked Russian military vehicles, sometimes forcing them to retreat. The Russian soldiers' response to unarmed civilian resistance varied from reluctance to engage the protesters, to firing directly into crowds. There have been mass detentions of Ukrainian protesters, and Ukrainian media has reported forced disappearances, mock executions, hostage-taking, extrajudicial killings, and sexual violence perpetrated by the Russian military.
War-related disruption to Ukrainian agriculture and shipping worsened the world food crisis. Ukraine is one of the world's biggest suppliers of wheat, corn and other grains. Control of lithium deposits in the Donbas, and Ukraine's grain wealth, would give Russia a monopoly on the world market. In 2022, Russian General Vladimir Ovchinsky confirmed that one of the goals of the invasion was to seize Ukrainian lithium deposits. About 80% of Ukraine's oil, natural gas and coal fields are found in the Donbas-Dnipro region.
As part of the economic sanctions against Russia for its war the EU Commission has banned use of the Nord Stream pipelines. Pipelines carrying natural gas and oil from Russia to Central Europe continued to operate during the war in a reduced manner. They have been attacked several times; in May 2025 both sides accused each other of attacking gas infrastructure in Russia's Kursk Oblast. In August 2025 Ukraine repeatedly attacked pumping stations of Russia's Druzhba pipeline, interrupting oil supply to Hungary and Slovakia, while the same month a Russian attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure left more than 100,000 households without electricity.
By late October 2025, an estimated 50% of Russia's 38 major refineries had been hit more than once. The result has been an estimated drop in oil production of between 10 and 15%, leading to raised domestic fuel prices and shortages in some regions. On the 6th of October 2022 the Ukrainian military reported that 86 Shahed 136 kamikaze drones had been launched by Russian forces, and between the 30th of September and the 6th of October Ukrainian forces had destroyed 24 out of 46 launched. On the 15th of November 2022, Russia fired 85 missiles at the Ukrainian power grid, causing power outages in Kyiv and neighbouring regions.
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Common questions
When did Vladimir Putin announce the special military operation that started the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022?
Vladimir Putin announced the special military operation on the 24th of February 2022. This announcement marked the start of the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II.
How many Ukrainians have been displaced or fled Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian war as of December 2025?
As of December 2025, about 8 million Ukrainians are internally displaced and 6.7 million have fled the country. These figures create Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II from a population of 41 million.
What were Russia's stated goals for invading Ukraine according to Vladimir Putin on the 24th of February 2022?
Russia claimed its goal was to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine while supporting Russian-backed breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Putin baselessly claimed the Ukrainian government were neo-Nazis committing genocide against the Russian minority in the Donbas.
Which city did Ukrainian forces recapture from Russian troops on the 1st of April after fighting began on the 24th of February 2022?
Ukrainian forces entered Bucha on the 1st of April and recaptured the region around Kyiv. This operation uncovered evidence of war crimes committed by Russian troops in the area.
When did Ukraine launch its first direct offensive into Russian territory during the Russo-Ukrainian war?
Ukraine launched their first direct offensive into Russian territory on the 6th of August 2024. The main axis of this incursion centred on Sudzha within the bordering Kursk Oblast.