WARNING: this piece contains distressing and violent imagery
After months of buildup and numerous denials that any invasion was planned, Vladimir Putin announced on 24 February that he had launched a “special military operation” to “demilitarise and denazify” Ukraine.
Western analysts expected a quick “shock and awe” invasion, and it seems there were indeed attempts by Russia to directly target the Ukrainian president, Volodomyr Zelenskiy, probably in order to replace his government with one more pliable to Moscow’s will.
But if Putin expected a quick, easy war with little Ukrainian or international opposition – like his invasion of Crimea in 2014 – he has been disappointed. The war has resulted in sanctions against Russia, Nato membership applications from Sweden and Finland, and rising fuel and food prices in countries thousands of miles from the conflict zone. This is how it has developed in Ukraine.
Notes and credits
The coloured areas show assessed areas of Russian control on the day indicated, as collated by the Institute for the Study of War and AEI’s Critical Threats Project. On a given day Russian troops may have made temporary advances or claimed to control other areas; for simplicity these are not shown. Video sources: Ukrainian presidential office, Ukrainian Interior Ministry, Azov, TPYXA, Ukrainian 58 separate motorised infantry brigade, and agencies.
