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Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Today marks three years since the start of the Russian aggression in Ukraine.
On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which had begun in 2014.
The invasion, the largest and deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II, has caused hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian military casualties.
Russian troops have now occupied about 20% of Ukraine. Out of a population of 41 million, about 8 million Ukrainians are internally displaced and more than 8.2 million have fled the country by April 2023, creating the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.
In late 2021, Russia massed troops near Ukraine's borders and presented demands to the West including a ban on Ukraine's membership in the NATO military alliance.
After repeatedly denying that he had any plans to attack Ukraine, on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation", saying it was to support the Russian-backed separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, whose paramilitary forces had been fighting Ukraine in the Donbass conflict since 2014.
Putin claimed that the Ukrainian government were neo-Nazis committing genocide against the Russian minority in Donbas and said that Russia's goal was the "demilitarization and denazification" of Ukraine.
Russian air strikes and a ground invasion were launched on a northern front from Belarus towards the capital, a southern front from Crimea, and an eastern front from Donbas and towards Kharkiv.
Ukraine adopted martial law, ordered a general mobilization, and severed diplomatic relations with Russia.
Russian troops withdrew from the north and outskirts of Kiev by April 2022, after facing fierce resistance and logistical challenges.
The Bucha massacre, among the most horrific, was discovered after their withdrawal. In the southeast, Russia launched an offensive in Donbas and captured Mariupol after a devastating siege.
Russia continued to bomb military and civilian targets away from the front and hit the power grid during the winter months.
In late 2022, Ukraine launched a successful counteroffensive in the south and east, liberating most of the Kharkiv Oblast.
Shortly thereafter, Russia illegally annexed four partially occupied provinces. In November, Ukraine liberated Kherson. In June 2023, Ukraine launched another counteroffensive in the southeast, but made few gains.
After small but steady Russian advances in the east in the first half of 2024, Ukraine launched a cross-border offensive in Russia's Kursk region in August, where North Korean soldiers were sent to assist Russia.
The United Nations Human Rights Office reports that Russia is committing serious human rights violations in occupied Ukraine.
The direct cost of the war to Russia during the first three years was over $250 billion through the defense budget, plus more than $200 billion through an off-budget financing mechanism of preferential bank loans given to defense contractors and war-related businesses.
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