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Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has entered its sixth day. Russian troops are driving deeper into the country having attacked Ukraine from three directions: its northern border with Belarus, the eastern frontier with Russia, and in the south from Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014.
Tuesday March 1
Russia has moved 75 per cent of its troops previously positioned along the border into Ukraine, according to The Pentagon.
Russian forces have launched a heavy bombardment of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, an assault that overshadowed the first direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials since President Vladimir Putin began his invasion six days ago. Video footage shared on social media showed high-rise apartment blocks in Kharkiv being hit by heavy shelling that shrouded the sky with plumes of dark smoke.
Russian soldiers had advanced roughly 5km towards Kyiv since Sunday and were now within 25km of the centre of the capital. Satellite imagery released on Monday showed that a Russian convoy heading towards Kyiv from the north had grown in length to several dozen kilometres.
In southern Ukraine, Russian attempts to cut the country off from the Black Sea appeared to be having more success. Reports suggested that the port of Mariupol, the last big stronghold of Ukrainian resistance that has stopped Russia from connecting the eastern border region of Donbas to Crimea, was surrounded.
Russian and Ukrainian military claims cannot be independently verified.
Monday February 28
Ukrainian troops successfully defended Kyiv after a Russian attack overnight on Sunday that saw columns of Russian troops repeatedly try to storm the city, according to the Ukrainian military commander leading the defence of the capital city. Russian forces killed dozens in heavy rocket attacks across residential neighbourhoods in Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military said Russian troops continued to attack airports, air defence systems, critical infrastructure and residential areas around the country, launching missile strikes on buildings in cities of Zhytomyr and Chernihiv.
Russia’s military claimed it had captured the cities of Berdyansk and Enerhodar and the “territory around” a nuclear power plant in Zaporizhiya in the country’s south-east. It also said it had taken control of Ukraine’s airspace.
Russian and Ukrainian military claims cannot be independently verified.
Sunday February 27
Ukrainian troops repelled a Russian incursion into Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city on Sunday.
Russian forces continued to slowly encircle the capital Kyiv, where Mayor Vitali Klitschko has ordered a curfew until Monday morning in order to avoid residents of the capital city being mistaken for Russian ‘saboteurs’.
Russia’s army continued to gain ground in southern regions of Ukraine, using troops rolling in from the Crimean peninsula.
Thousands of people fleeing the fighting are in the western city of Lviv, many desperate to make the 100km journey to the Polish town of Przemysl and escape the war.
Saturday February 26
There was fighting overnight in the southern cities of Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa. Areas near Sumy, Poltava, and Mariupol were hit by airstrikes, Ukrainian sources told Reuters. A witness in Melitopol confirmed a Russian claim that the city was under their control.
The centre of Kyiv was still under Ukrainian control, its leaders said. witnesses reported gunfire near government buildings and the Ukrainian army said it had repelled an attack on a base in the city. Witnesses also heard frequent artillery blasts, and a missile struck an apartment block.
In addition to attempts at advancing into Kyiv from the north-west, Russian helicopter and tank forces are trying to take Zhulyany airport in southern Kyiv, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser in Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, said Saturday morning on local television.
Arestovych said battles are underway in Kharkiv, the second-largest city, and that Ukrainian forces had for three days blocked a Russian advance on Kyiv from the north-east near Chernihiv. Russian forces were seen in nearby Pryluky, Konrad Muzyka of Rochan Consulting wrote on Saturday morning.
The civilian exodus from Kyiv continued on Friday afternoon. Traffic was heavy on roads leading out of the capital and crowds gathered in the central Kyiv train station as residents scrambled to escape the city. Many people headed west. But that direction also carried risks, with reports on Friday of air sirens in Vinnytsia and air strikes reported in Zhitomir.
Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of western Ukraine’s largest city Lviv, said on Saturday that government troops were “repelling” about 60 Russian soldiers who landed by helicopter in the nearby town of Brody.
Russian and Ukrainian military claims cannot be independently verified.
Friday February 25
Early on Thursday, Ukraine’s army confirmed it had lost control of the northeastern city of Konotop, but had held up the Russian advance on the capital Kyiv north of Chernihiv. Ukrainian forces overnight destroyed bridges north of the city to impede the Russian advance.
Hostomel airport, 10km northwest of the capital, changed hands several times over the course of Thursday and overnight. Ukrainian sources said Russian IL-76 transport aircraft thought to be carrying paratroopers to the airport returned to Gomel in Belarus after the battle prevented them from landing. On Friday afternoon Russia claimed it had captured the airport.
Russian forces were in Kyiv’s northwestern suburbs on Friday. Traffic was heavy on roads leading out of the city as civilians fled. Officials urged residents in the Obolon district of Kyiv, a populous residential area, to stay indoors amid reports that Russian armoured vehicles had entered the neighbourhood.
There were battles around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, which Ukrainian officials said was still under its control. There was also fighting in the eastern Donbass region, where government troops have fought Russian-backed separatists for eight years.
There was fighting in the outskirts of the southern city of Melitopol, as Russian forces advanced north from the Crimean peninsula, according to a Ukrainian army statement.
Russian forces also captured Zmiinyi (Snake) Island in the Black Sea south of Odesa. The Russian defence ministry said 82 Ukrainian soldiers there had surrendered, while Ukrainian officials said all 13 border guards on the island were killed by fire from a Russian warship.
Russian and Ukrainian military claims cannot be independently verified.
Thursday February 24
Russia’s multipronged invasion suggested it was to advance south towards Kyiv from Belarus, encircle Ukraine’s forces in the east, and cleave the country from the Russian border to the Black Sea.
Putin on Tuesday February 22 recognised the separatist governments in Luhansk and Donetsk, two provinces in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, and ordered Russian troops to enter them. On Thursday February 24 Moscow began a full-scale invasion of the country.
Sources: Institute for the Study of War, Rochan Consulting, FT research
Cartography and development by Steve Bernard, Chris Campbell, Emma Lewis, Joanna S. Kao, Sam Learner, Niko Kommenda and Martin Stabe. Based on reporting by Roman Olearchyk and John Reed in Kyiv, Guy Chazan in Lviv, Max Seddon in Moscow and Henry Foy in Brussels
