![]() | It has been suggested that portions of Prelude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Invasion analysis) be split from it and merged into this article. (Discuss) (December 2023) |
Russian invasion of Ukraine | |||||||
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Part of the Russo-Ukrainian War (outline) | |||||||
![]() Map of Ukraine as of 11 December 2023 (details): | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Supported by:![]() |
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Order of battle | Order of battle | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Pre-invasion at border: 169,000–190,000[d][4][5] Pre-invasion total: 900,000 military[6] 554,000 paramilitary[6] In February 2023: 300,000+ active personnel in Ukraine[7] |
Pre-invasion total: 196,600 military[8] 102,000 paramilitary[8] July 2022 total: up to 700,000[9] September 2023 total: over 800,000[10] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Reports vary widely, see § Casualties for details. | |||||||
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On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that started in 2014. The invasion was the largest attack on a European country since World War II.[11][12][13] It is estimated to have caused tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties and hundreds of thousands of military casualties. By June 2022, Russian troops occupied about 20% of Ukrainian territory. About 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million had fled the country by April 2023, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. Extensive environmental damage caused by the war, widely described as an ecocide, contributed to food crises worldwide.
Before the invasion, Russian troops massed near Ukraine's borders as Russian officials denied any plans to attack. Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" to support the Russian-backed breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, whose paramilitary forces had been fighting Ukraine in the Donbas conflict since 2014. Putin espoused irredentist views challenging Ukraine's right to exist, and falsely claimed that Ukraine was governed by neo-Nazis persecuting the Russian minority. He said his goal was to "demilitarize" and "denazify" Ukraine. Russian air strikes and a ground invasion launched at a northern front from Belarus towards Kyiv, a southern front from Crimea, and an eastern front from the Donbas and towards Kharkiv. Ukraine enacted martial law and ordered a general mobilization.
Russian troops retreated from the northern front by April 2022 after encountering logistical challenges and stiff Ukrainian resistance. On the southern and southeastern fronts, Russia captured Kherson in March and Mariupol in May after a destructive siege. Russia launched a renewed offensive in the Donbas and continued to bomb military and civilian targets far from the front line, including the energy grid through the winter. In late 2022, Ukraine launched successful counteroffensives in the south and east. Soon after, Russia announced the illegal annexation of four partly occupied regions. In November, Ukraine retook parts of Kherson Oblast, including the city of Kherson itself. In June 2023, Ukraine launched another counteroffensive in the southeast.
The invasion was met with international condemnation. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution condemning the invasion and demanding a full Russian withdrawal in March 2022. The International Court of Justice ordered Russia to suspend military operations and the Council of Europe expelled Russia. Many countries imposed sanctions on Russia and its ally Belarus, and provided humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. Protests occurred around the world, along with mass arrests of anti-war protesters in Russia, which also enacted a law enabling greater media censorship. Over 1,000 companies closed their operations in Russia and Belarus as a result of the invasion. The International Criminal Court (ICC) opened investigations into possible crimes against humanity, war crimes, abduction of children, and genocide, issuing an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023.
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... If the collapse of the USSR was sudden and largely bloodless, growing strains between its two largest successors would develop into limited fighting in the Donbas in 2014 and then into all-out warfare in 2022, causing death, destruction, and a refugee crisis on a scale not seen in Europe since the Second World War.
... However, the scale of Russia's invasion of Ukraine is unprecedented in modern history and, in terms of human costs, is Moscow's largest military intervention in the post-1945 period. ...
... . Russia had done the unthinkable, deliberately starting the biggest war in Europe since World War II. ...
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