One yr in the past, on February 21, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly acknowledged Donetsk and Luhansk as unbiased states.
The breakaway jap Ukrainian areas had been on the coronary heart of a battle between Ukraine’s forces and Russia-backed separatists since 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea.
Putin’s recognition of the so-called Donetsk Individuals’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk Individuals’s Republic (LPR) was a watershed second within the months-long escalation previous Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russian forces invade Ukraine
Shortly earlier than 6am Moscow time (03:00 GMT), in a televised handle, President Putin introduced that his nation was launching a “particular navy operation” in jap Ukraine to guard the individuals of DPR and LPR.
“I made a decision to conduct a particular navy operation. Its aim is the safety of people that, throughout eight years, undergo abuse and genocide from Kyiv regime. To this finish, we are going to search to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, in addition to deliver to trial those that perpetrated quite a few bloody crimes towards civilians, together with towards residents of the Russian Federation,” he mentioned.
Europe would then get up to what could be the most important, most extended navy offensive within the continent since World Conflict II.
Russian floor forces invaded from 4 important fronts within the north, northeast, east and south, whereas artillery and missiles focused quite a few places.
From the north – Russian forces moved in direction of Kyiv from Belarus.
From the northeast – Russian forces moved west in direction of Kyiv from Russia.
From the east Russian forces pushed in direction of Kharkiv from the Donbas area.
From the south Russian forces moved from Crimea in direction of Odesa within the west, Zaporizhzhya within the north and Mariupol within the east.
Prior to now yr, Russia has captured key cities and strategic ports, and Ukraine has launched a number of counteroffensives to regain misplaced territory.
Within the following infographic collection, Al Jazeera maps these main battles throughout the nation.
