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Mapping and tracking Russian invasion of Ukraine
- See where Russia’s forces are moving within Ukraine’s borders and check back for the latest visual explanations and annotated maps.
EKO HOT BLOG recalls that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began Thursday morning with attacks by land, sea and air in what was immediately the largest military assault by one European state on another since World War Two.
Missiles rained down on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, a city of 3 million people, before dawn Thursday. Ukrainian forces battled Russian invaders on three sides on Thursday after Moscow mounted its assault across the country.
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By nightfall, a picture was emerging of fierce fighting across multiple fronts. An adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office said Russian forces had captured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Heavy exchanges of fire were also taking place in the regions of Sumy and Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson and Odessa in the south.
Feb. 24, 2022: Where Russia’s land invasion followed air attacks
Fighting continued across Ukraine on Thursday as Russian troops advanced into the country from the northeastern border, the east and the south. As the sunset in the country, special forces and airborne troops were closing in on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. Ukrainian officials said in a statement that some civilian targets had come under fire and that Russian forces had seized the former nuclear power plant at Chernobyl.
Ground fighting or incursions
At least 137 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians had been killed, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Russia lost two helicopters and seven aircraft in combat, officials said.
The ground invasion followed heavy shelling and airstrikes that began just before dawn local time. Those attacks had targeted cities, airports and military infrastructure across Ukraine.
Airstrikes or fires reported
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that it had disabled Ukraine’s air defenses and air bases and that Russian forces had destroyed more than 70 military targets, including 11 airfields, a helicopter and four drones.
Josh Holder, Scott Reinhard, Allison McCann, Marco Hernandez, Keith Collins, Denise Lu and Yuliya Parshina-Kottas
Feb. 24, 2022: Russia carries out a large-scale invasion of Ukraine
On the first day of the first major land war in Europe in decades, the Russian military plunged into Ukraine by land, sea and air. Russia shelled more than a dozen cities and towns, including outside the capital, Kyiv. Russian troops moved across the Ukrainian border in several waves, landing in the port city of Odessa in the south and crossing the eastern border into Kharkiv, the second-largest city.
Airstrikes or attacks
Troops moved into an area north of Kyiv, advancing on Chernihiv, about 80 miles from the capital. And they touched off a pitched battle at the highly radioactive Chernobyl exclusion zone that risked damaging the concrete-encased nuclear reactor that melted down in 1986. By sunset, Russian special forces and airborne troops had seized the Chernobyl site and were pushing into the outskirts of Kyiv.
Some of the most intense fightings was outside of Kharkiv in the northeast, according to a senior U.S. Defense Department official. A video suggested that at least one residential building in the area was destroyed.
And a satellite photo taken by Planet Labs on Thursday morning showed fire and black smoke rising from the Chuhuiv Air Base outside of Kharkiv.
Russian forces so far have been striking Ukrainian military installations and air-defense targets, using more than 100 medium- and short-range ballistic missiles, the defense official said. Russia has also used sea-launched missiles from warships in the Black Sea.
Satellite images taken before the offensive began show some of the locations hit by airstrikes.
In the south, at least 18 Ukrainian military officials were killed in an attack outside Odessa, where amphibious commandos from the Russian Navy came ashore on Thursday, according to Sergey Nazarov, an aide to Odessa’s mayor. In the east, Russian-backed separatists fought Ukrainian troops along the front line that has divided the rebels and Ukrainian forces since 2014.
The Russian military also moved north from Crimea, headed in the direction of Kherson.
Footage captured by security cameras at a border crossing Thursday morning showed Russian military vehicles entering from Crimea.
The Russian attacks began just minutes after President Vladimir V. Putin delivered a speech declaring the beginning of a military operation in Ukraine, and as the United Nations Security Council met in New York.
Keith Collins, Lazaro Gamio, Josh Holder, Scott Reinhard, Allison McCann, Agnes Chang, Pablo Robles and Marco Hernandez
Feb. 22, 2022: How Russian troops closed in on Ukraine
Since October, Russia has been building an enormous military force along Ukraine’s border, with as many as 190,000 troops in or near Ukraine, according to American and Ukrainian officials. The Russian troop presence has grown in recent weeks from scattered groupings parked at military bases and training grounds to battle-ready units arrayed in tactical formations. They appear prepared to attack Ukraine from three directions, according to military analysts: the north, east and south.
Here’s where Russia has added forces during the current buildup:
In recent weeks, Russia has deployed the final components needed to conduct a large-scale military operation against Ukraine. The force includes fighter aircraft and attack helicopters, along with elite paratrooper units and special forces troops that would typically serve as the tip of the spear in any invasion plans, military experts say.
Troops deployed to the north in Belarus could quickly reach the capital, Kyiv, and Russian Naval forces in the Black Sea could menace Ukraine’s southern coast. Most military analysts and officials believe that any attack will begin with a heavy incursion into Ukraine’s east, in the vicinity of two breakaway territories that Russia has long supplied with troops and arms.
2. December 2021: Toward the end of last year, Russia began moving troops, tanks and heavy artillery into new positions across the country. Much of that buildup focused on two breakaway provinces in eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk, where the Ukrainian military has been at war with Russian-backed separatists since 2014.
3. January: Russia started moving equipment and troops into Belarus, a close ally, in preparation for joint military drills. Russian forces in Belarus might allow Russia to open a new front on Ukraine’s northern border, closer to the capital, Kyiv.
4. February: Russian officials announced a partial withdrawal of troops, though U.S. officials disputed this claim and said Russia had increased its presence instead. Units from the Central and Eastern Military Districts, which are some of Russia’s most advanced, remain deployed.
Josh Holder, Allison McCann, Scott Reinhard and Michael Schwirtz
Feb. 21, 2022: Donetsk and Luhansk: breakaway regions at the center of the conflict
President Vladimir V. Putin recognized the independence of two territories in eastern Ukraine, Luhansk and Donetsk, that are largely controlled by Russian-backed separatists. Shortly after, Russian troops were ordered into the area, a move that threatens to sharply escalate the conflict with Ukraine and could be a prelude to a broader invasion.
The separatist enclaves claim all of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions as their territory, but they control only about one-third of the area. It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Putin would recognize the enclaves in their de facto borders or would seek to expand them by force.
Ukraine and the rest of the world view the enclaves as Ukrainian territory. The Russian-backed separatists in the region have been embroiled in a long-running conflict with Ukrainian forces.
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