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Concept
Russian invasion of Ukraine
Summary
On 24 February 2022, in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War which began in 2014. The invasion has killed tens of thousands on both sides. Russian forces have been responsible for mass civilian casualties and for torturing captured Ukrainian soldiers. By June 2022, about 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced. More than 8.2 million had fled the country by May 2023, becoming Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. Extensive environmental damage, widely described as ecocide, contributed to food crises worldwide.
Prior to the invasion, Russian troops concentrated near Ukraine's borders, as Russian officials denied plans to attack. Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" in support of the Russian-backed breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, whose military forces were fighting Ukraine in the Donbas conflict, claiming the goal was to "demilitarise" and "denazify" Ukraine. Putin espoused irredentist views, challenged Ukraine's right to exist, and falsely claimed that Ukraine was governed by neo-Nazis persecuting the ethnic Russian minority. Russian air strikes and a ground invasion launched at a northern front from Belarus towards Kyiv, a north-eastern front towards Kharkiv, a southern front from Crimea, and a south-eastern front from the Donbas. In response, Ukraine enacted martial law and ordered a general mobilisation.
Russian troops retreated from the northern front by April 2022. On the southern and south-eastern fronts, Russia captured Kherson in March and Mariupol in May after a destructive siege. In April, Russia launched a renewed battle of Donbas. Russian forces continued to bomb military and civilian targets far from the front line, including the energy grid through the winter. In late 2022, Ukraine launched counteroffensives in the south and east. Soon after, Russia announced the illegal annexation of four partly-occupied oblasts. In November, Ukraine retook parts of Kherson Oblast. In February 2023, Russia mobilised nearly 200,000 soldiers for a new offensive in Donbas.
Official source
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