A woman protesting in Kyiv, Ukraine - May, 2022
On 24th February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine. Experts believe the plan was a fast takeover of power. One year later, the war is still going on.
Let’s look at what’s happened to the land, the people, and what it means for the future.
THE LAND
At the beginning of the invasion Vladimir Putin’s army planned to take over the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and overthrow the government.
Russian army convoy approaching Kyiv at the start of the war (Maxar Technologies)
During that time, thousands of people tried to leave Kyiv by road. There were huge traffic jams as people left the city.
Traffic jams as Ukrainians flee the approaching Russian army
Nikita is a 21-year-old student who’s currently studying in Singapore. His family is from Kyiv and they fled at the beginning of the war. He said that day was the scariest of his life.
Nikita Taratorin is originally from Kyiv, but is at uni in Singapore
Thousands of people left the capital city but one crucial person stayed - Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
At the time, he reportedly said “I need ammo, not a ride” when the US offered to help him leave.
James Rogers is from the Council on Geostrategy. He said Zelenskyy’s decision to stay in Ukraine even though it was very dangerous for him “galvanised the whole country” to fight.
After failing to take control of Kyiv, Russian troops moved to areas around Kyiv like Bucha. When troops left, mass graves were found there and Russia was accused of war crimes.
Mass grave sites left by a retreating Russian army
Since then, Russia has focused on fighting in the east and south of Ukraine.
Right now, Russia has taken control of 20% of Ukraine’s land. But Ukraine has won back just over 74,000 km2 of what it lost at the height of the invasion in March 2022.
That’s according to the Institute for the Study of War and AEI’s Critical Threats Project.
Total land taken at the height of the invasion Credit: Data from the Institute for the Study of War
The amount of land occupied after Ukraine's fightback
We’ve taken those numbers and mapped them onto the UK and California to show what roughly the same area of land being won back would look like in other places.
The first maps of the UK and California show how much of the country and state would have been occupied at the height of Russia’s advance. It’s roughly the same area of land that was occupied in Ukraine.
The second maps show how much of their territory would be occupied after Ukraine’s fightback.
Amount of land taken from Ukraine at the height of the invasion, and what it would look like in the UK
How much of the UK would be occupied after Ukraine's fightback
Amount of land taken at the height of the invasion, and what it would look like in California
How much of California would be occupied after Ukraine's fightback
The Institute for the Study of War’s website shows the situation at the moment. They have an interactive map which shows the timeline of the war.
THE PEOPLE
According to the U.S. military around 100,000 troops have been killed or injured on each side. The United Nations says more than 7,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed.
Around 8 million refugees have fled across Europe, which is the biggest movement of European refugees since the second world war. Poland has taken almost 1.6M people in.
But many have stayed. 22-year-old Kvitka studies in Scotland but her extended family decided not to leave their homes.
Kvitka Perihenets is 22. She's Ukrainian but is at uni in Scotland
Family and romantic relationships have been massively affected by the war.
Nataliia lived in Kyiv. When she gets together with her friends she says the conversation starts with war, but then always turns to relationships.
According to official statistics there were 198,000 marriages between March and December 2022. That’s around 7,000 more than the same period the year before.
Nataliia met her boyfriend Max online, and he’s now on the frontline in eastern Ukraine. She says he still manages to send her flowers every week.
Nataliia Drapak is a translator who lives in Kyiv
THE FUTURE
On her bathroom mirror Nataliia has written a quote by a Ukrainian poet called Serhiy Zhadan. It translates to ‘life should go on, even when war is around you’.
Nataliia's Serhiy Zhadan poem
After a year of war, a lot of people are thinking about how it will end. What the ‘end’ of a war looks like is difficult to define.
James Rogers from the Council on Geostrategy says one possible outcome is a ‘frozen conflict’. That would be where Russia keeps control of the parts of southern and eastern Ukraine it currently occupies, without taking or losing any more land.
Another way the war might end, he says, is “Ukraine basically ejects the Russians from all the territories that were seized after the 24th February last year”.
For that to happen Ukraine will need a lot more support from other countries. Western countries have supplied billions of dollars worth of aid and military equipment, including advanced tanks.
Ukraine is now asking Western countries to supply it with fighter jets. There are reports that Western troops are training Ukrainian troops how to fly them.
And how do Ukrainians imagine their future? We’ll let Kvitka and Nikita have the final word:
Nikita Taratorin and Kvitka Perihenets are both Ukrainians living abroad