A Visual Guide to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
Bloomberg News is following the unfolding situation involving Russia, Ukraine and NATO allies. Here are the latest updates.
Russia hit Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities early Monday in what appeared to be the most intense barrage of missile strikes since the earliest days of the war, a day after President Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine for an attack on a landmark bridge. Ukraine hasn’t officially claimed responsibility for the blast.
Putin said “massive strikes” targeted energy and communications infrastructure in Ukraine, as well as military command installations. His claims were undermined by evidence on social media of missiles hitting Kyiv’s most popular park, a prominent pedestrian bridge and other civilian infrastructure in the center of the capital. At least 12 people were killed and 80 wounded in the attacks, which the EU called war crimes.
Since the beginning of September, Ukraine’s forces have made rapid advances and taken territory previously lost to Russia. Estimates of regained ground have risen steadily in recent days, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy claiming to have recaptured more than 6,000 square kilometers (2,300 square miles) in the east and south of the country.
In Kharkiv, thousands of Russian troops retreated in the face of a lightning Ukrainian offensive. Ukraine’s Advisor to the Interior Minister, Anton Herashchenko says Kyiv’s troops have taken Velykyi Burluk, a town in Kharkiv not far from the Russia-Ukraine border. The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, said Ukraine was likely to capture Izyum, a strategic location for Russia’s campaign in Donbas, in the next day or two.
Over the past few days, nearly 1,000 Ukrainian fighters defending Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant “surrendered”, according to Russian authorities. They’ve survived a months-long battle with Russian forces who had besieged the city and this final stronghold of resistance. Moscow has sought to capture the important port city, where they hope to establish a land bridge between Crimea and separatist republics the Donbas.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian defenders continued to fight off Russian troops around Kharkiv City, where Russian forces will likely complete their withdrawal, according to the Institute for the Study of War. And in the Donbas region, Russian forces made many attempts to take transport routes and advance on small settlements.
Having failed to seize areas near Kyiv, Russia has focused its offensive on Ukraine’s east and south, while continuing to sow destruction in the rest of the country with missiles.
Over the past month, Russian forces made marginal advances in their bid to occupy most of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, while Ukrainian troops have gradually pushed them away from the country’s second-largest city Kharkiv. Russian attacks have effectively demolished Mariupol, the Black Sea port city where only a small group of surrounded defenders continue to hold ground in bomb shelters below the sprawling Azovstal steel plant after women and children, trapped there for several weeks, have finally been evacuated.
U.S. and other foreign allies ramped up weapons deliveries to Ukraine as Russia continued to hit the country’s critical infrastructure with cruise missiles, often fired from stategic bombers flying as far away as the Caspian Sea. Such attacks increasingly targeted Odesa, a strategically placed coastal city which stands in the way of a potential push toward Transnistria, Moldova’s separatist pro-Russian enclave.
Read more: Russia Trains Missiles on Ukraine’s Quiet Zone to Target Trade
Russia has stopped exporting gas to Poland and Bulgaria, making good on a threat to cut off countries who refuse President Vladimir Putin’s demand to pay for fuel in rubles. The European Union had previously rejected the demand, saying it violates sanctions put in place to punish Russia for invading Ukraine. In turning off the tap, the Kremlin has effectively removed from the EU toolkit the power to sanction its gas as a way of ramping up pressure.
EU member countries that rely heavily on Russian gas imports could face energy shortages and rationing at home as payment deadlines approach if there is no agreement on how to settle their balances. Four European gas buyers have already paid for supplies in rubles as President Vladimir Putin demanded, according to a person close to Russian gas giant Gazprom PJSC.
Poland, which has taken in nearly 3 million Ukrainian refugees since Feb. 24, has said its consumers would not be affected by the shutoff. The country’s natural gas storage is currently at almost 80% capacity, with plans to increase to 90% capacity—roughly a one to two month supply, according to Bloomberg News calculations of data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.
Poland’s dependence on Moscow for gas imports has been declining for the past decade. The country plans to make up any shortfall with other sources, including imports from Germany, Czech Republic and a new line from Slovakia that is slated to open this summer, according to the country’s Climate Ministry. All of those suppliers are also reliant on Russian gas. Poland’s new gas pipeline from Norway is expected to open in October or November.
Read more: Russia to Cut Gas to Poland and Bulgaria, Making Energy a Weapon
Satellite imagery has revealed the existence of a new mass grave in Manhush, Ukraine, a village about 12 miles away from Mariupol, where Russian forces have laid siege. Ukrainian officials have accused Russian soldiers of attempting to hide the deaths of civilians by transporting their bodies to the mass grave site.
The satellite images, released by Maxar Technologies, show long rows of more than 200 new graves dug over the past several weeks, adjacent to an existing community cemetery.
Russian forces have shifted focus to the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine after withdrawing from the country’s north and areas around the capital, Kyiv. Fighting continues on these fronts as well as in Mariupol, where the city’s mayor says as many as 20,000 people may have been killed in the siege. A report by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe says Russia has committed war crimes by targeting civilians.
Russia is preparing supplies and troops to continue its offensive in east Ukraine, pursuing full control of the Donbas region.
Russian forces continue to abandon previously controlled territories in the Chernihiv and Kyiv regions of northern Ukraine, ending a weeks-long campaign to surround and control the capital.
Towns in the area freed by Ukrainian armies reveal extensive damage from shelling and attacks, as well as many civilian casualties. In Bucha, near Kyiv, images of bodies in the streets—some with hands bound and showing evidence of torture—have increased the urgency of calls for the United Nations to investigate reported war crimes by Russian forces. U.S. President Joe Biden has said Russian President Vladimir Putin and his subordinates could be prosecuted for said crimes. Russia has denied involvement in civilian killings.
The extent of these casualties, which the UN OHCHR has said are almost certainly undercounted in official data, have also prompted EU officials to hold Russia accountable through renewed rounds of sanctions. City officials in Mariupol claim Russian armies are destroying evidence of civilian deaths after the response to Bucha. The UN reports 3,675 known civilian casualties between the start of the invasion Feb. 24 and April 5.
Russia said it targeted an oil refinery and fuel depots in the strategic Black Sea city of Odesa, which was rocked by explosions early Sunday. The self-proclaimed government of Transnistria, a pro-Russian enclave in neighboring Moldova, denied a Ukrainian claim that Moscow’s forces are redeploying in its territory in possible preparation for an attack from the west.
Negotiators from Russia and Ukraine may resume video talks Monday.
Read more: Ukraine Update: More Talks Possible Even as Bucha Outrage Grows
Ukrainian forces have retaken areas in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions as Russia removes many of its troops and the Ukrainian military continues its counteroffensive. Talks between the two countries have resumed virtually on Friday after meetings in Turkey this past week.
As Russian troops withdraw from parts of northern Ukraine, international nuclear monitors expect to return to Chernobyl as Russia relinquishes control of the nuclear site, which will be returned to Ukrainian operators.
Fighting continues across the south and eastern parts of the country, as the United Nations reports aid has yet to reach the besieged city of Mariupol. Russia troops did not open humanitarian corridors out of the southern city on Friday.
While Russia claimed it will cut back operations around Kyiv during negotiations in Turkey on Tuesday, the military is actually regrouping its forces in an attempt to take control of the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. Russian troops continue to make gains in the region’s largest city, Mariupol, which has been under siege since March 1. Russian forces have sustained casualties due to tough fighting in the city while making gains from both sides of Russian controlled territory, according to The Institute for the Study of War and AEI’s Critical Threats Project.
Satellite photos show extensive residential damage to apartment complexes and homes across Mariupol. Russia’s siege of the city has killed at least 5,000 people, according to mayor Vadym Boychenko on Monday. The city council estimated that 80-90% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
Read more: Ukraine Update: U.S. Says Putin Feels Misled by Military Leaders
Ukrainian troops have successfully pushed Russian troops out of Trostyanets and several villages outside Kharkiv over the weekend. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak called for a “sharp increase” in artillery supplies today, to maintain the military’s counteroffensive operations which he says have so far resulted in the deaths of more than 500 Russian soldiers per day.
NATO allies disagree on the type and quantity of weaponry they should supply to Ukraine. Some, like leaders of the U.K. and most eastern European Union countries, are in favor of sending more powerful weapons, including anti-aircraft capabilities, while others like France worry that sending tanks and jets would complicate efforts to reach a cease-fire.
Read more: Ukraine Update: Biden Was Expressing ‘Outrage’ in Putin Ad Lib
A month into the war, Russia has failed to gain control of major Ukrainian cities, and the Kremlin says its focus now is on taking full control of Ukraine’s Donbas region. Russian troops have faced strong Ukrainian resistance and heavy losses thus far. As many as 15,000 Russian soldiers are estimated to have been killed, according to NATO.
Ukrainian cities are still under continuous Russian shelling, with many civilian casualties and extensive destruction to infrastructure. In the city of Mariupol, close to 80% of residential buildings have been destroyed, and three-hundred civilians died in the bombing of a theater on March 16, according to the Mariupol city council.
Ukrainian forces attacked Russian ships docked in Berdyansk on March 24, destroying one and damaging two others. Satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies Inc. showed an Alligator-class ship burning and partially submerged.
An estimated 10 million Ukrainians have been displaced, according to recent data published by two United Nations agencies.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration estimates that nearly 6.5 million people have relocated within Ukraine. Most have fled war zones around the city of Kyiv and eastern Ukraine, which includes cities under threat from Russian forces such as Dnipro, Zhaporizhzhia and Kharkiv. Most internally displaced Ukrainians have left for western and central Ukraine.
Another 3.6 million people have crossed the border to seek refuge in neighboring countries since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, according to the most recently available data from the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees. Most refugees have fled to western neighbors like Poland and Romania, but many have crossed into Russia.
The IOM estimates—which are based on telephone interviews with a representative sample of displaced people within Ukraine—show that more than 53% of those who are internally displaced are women and more than 60% of households displaced include children.
A large shopping center on the outskirts of Kyiv was destroyed by shelling from Russian forces and a subsequent fire, killing at least eight. The attack also damaged six residential apartment blocks in the area, rendering three of those unlivable. Two schools and two kindergartens were also damaged.
Ukraine rejected a Russian demand that its forces lay down their arms and leave Mariupol by Monday morning. Moscow had delivered the ultimatum to surrender in exchange for assurance of safe passage, despite multiple incidents of Russian soldiers firing upon evacuating civilians. The besieged southern city has been under heavy bombardment, while Russian forces have blocked humanitarian aid.
According to the United Nations, nearly 10 million Ukrainians have now been driven from their homes. While most have been displaced internally, about 3.4 million have fled to other countries.
Missiles struck an aircraft repair plant near the Lviv airport in western Ukraine. It was the first reported Russian strike in several days in parts of Ukraine near the Polish border, a key corridor for Ukrainians attempting to flee to Poland.
Other missile attacks across the country were defended against by Ukrainian anti-aircraft equipment, including in Vinnytsia and Odesa. Additional military aid from the United States was announced this week, and will include 800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems for ongoing protection from Russia’s aerial assault.
Mariupol, a port city in southern Ukraine, has been the target of brutal attacks by Russian troops, who have fired missiles at residential buildings, hospitals and civilians. The city has been barricaded by Russian troops for 16 days, without food, water, heat or electricity. Efforts to send aid from Zaporizhzhia have been stalled since March 5, as buses carrying the aid have been trapped in Russian-controlled Berdyansk.
Civilians, including children, were killed and injured today when rockets hit a convoy of people trying to evacuate the city, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. Separately, the Russian air force dropped a bomb on a theater where hundreds of people have been sheltering, according to the Mariupol city council. Satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies Inc. on March 14 shows the same building had been marked with the Russian word for “children” on the pavement outside.
Russia has repeatedly violated agreements to open humanitarian corridors leading out of Mariupol. The first successful evacuation came earlier this week, with 400 civilians escaping, followed by more than 30,000 people since then.
Read more: Russia Strikes Ukrainian Military Base Near Polish Border
At least 636 civilians have lost their lives in Ukraine and 1,125 have been injured as of March 13, according to data published by the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Among them, 46 deaths and 62 injuries of children have been confirmed.
The figures for the first 18 days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are an undercount, the OHCHR report says, as information from locations with intense hostilities in more recent days is still pending corroboration. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine reported 90 deaths and 100 injuries of children and the National Police of Kharkiv puts the number of civilian deaths in the region to 212. Allegations about hundreds of civilian casualties in Izium, Mariupol and Volnovakha are still being corroborated and are not included in the published tallies. The Mariupol City Council claims that 2,357 civilians have lost their lives as of March 14.
A total of 720 deaths and injuries have been recorded in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, while the remaining 1,041 took place in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Sumy and other regions.
According to OHCHR, most of the civilian casualties have been caused by attacks that use heavy artillery, multi-launch rocket systems, missiles and air strikes.
On the military side, a total of 1,300 Ukrainian troops have been killed, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Saturday. The only figures published by Russia’s Ministry of Defense on March 2 put the number of Russian troop casualties to 498 deaths and 1,597 injuries.
Read more: Kyiv Imposes Curfew Until March 17
Russia has been striking targets in western Ukraine more frequently in recent days, including missile strikes on a military training facility close to the Polish border. The International Peacekeeping and Security Center near Yavoriv, in the Lviv region, had been used regularly by NATO before the invasion.
The Russian military also continues to target sites around Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and fierce fighting has been reported there.
At least two people were killed and dozens wounded by Russian airstrikes that hit a high-rise building in northern Kyiv.
Read more: Russia Strikes Ukrainian Military Base Near Polish Border
Russian forces attempting to surround Kyiv continue to flood into suburban towns, killing civilians and causing destruction to homes and infrastructure. Thousands of people were evacuated from Vorzel, Bucha and Hostomel northwest of the capital on Friday. Further east, Chernihiv, Baryshivka and Nizhyn were still under heavy bombardment, including in residential areas, according to Ukrainian officials.
Satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies Inc. on March 10 and March 11 shows burning homes in Moschun and a destroyed shopping center in Chernihiv—counter to Russia’s claim that it is only targeting military structures with high precision.
Read more: Ukraine Update: Food Supplies Hold as Russia Intensifies Bombing
Thousands of people have been detained in Russia in Vladimir Putin’s brutal crackdown on protests opposing the war in Ukraine and ever-harsher restrictions on communicating online.
Demonstrations against the war across Russia have resulted in more than 13,000 detentions since Feb. 24, according to rights group OVD-Info, with most in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Unauthorized meetings are illegal in Russia, and those arrested could face years in jail.
On March 6, OVD said that authorities were carrying out searches on human rights activists and journalists in several regions, protesters had been beaten with batons, and that police have used tasers in some cases.
Some actors and social media or other figures have also spoken out about the war, while a handful of business leaders have called for peace. Jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny called for more protests this weekend.
Some citizens have also been arrested for posts on social media as the authorities seek to control access to information. Russian prosecutors are now seeking to declare Facebook parent company Meta ‘extremist’ and a ban on Instagram will take effect March 14.
Russia and Ukraine failed to make progress toward ending the war during a meeting today between their foreign ministers in Turkey—the highest-level talks to take place since Russia invaded two weeks ago. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denies his country has invaded its neighbor, insisting it is conducting a “special military operation.”
On the ground, Russian forces are largely stalled outside Kyiv and Kharkiv. Troops from Crimea have moved north toward Zaporizhzhia, according to the Institute for the Study of War’s situational report. Russia clearly indicated attacks will continue until its goals are met, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, following the meeting with his Russian counterpart.
More than 40,000 civilians were evacuated from combat zones along humanitarian corridors Thursday, after some 60,000 the prior day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address. Proposed corridors out of Mariupol and Volnovakha remain blocked due to ongoing Russian attacks.
At least 549 civilians have been killed since the invasion began, including 41 children, though the true toll is likely “considerably higher,” according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Ukraine has struggled to evacuate civilians from cities under siege along humanitarian corridors. While Russia has honored temporary cease-fire agreements on some evacuation routes, it has repeatedly violated others since March 6—like the one out of the southern city of Mariupol. Evacuations have not been possible there due to repeated shelling, according to reports from Ukrainian officials.
Local authorities in Mariupol reported that a Russian airstrike hit a maternity and children’s hospital on Wednesday, despite the agreed cease-fire, injuring at least 17 people. Children were reported to be among those trapped under the rubble.