- Hubert Walas
Pictures of war.
Within minutes of Vladimir Putin's speech on 24 February 2022, exactly one year ago, the first rockets fell on, among others, Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Odesa and Kharkiv.
Russia has launched an attack in almost every direction.
Cameras captured the entry of Russian troops at the Senkivka border crossing.
The Russians also crossed the Crimean border crossing and launched an invasion from the south.
A campaign of air attacks on critical sites of strategic value accompanied the ground attack.
The Kremlin aimed to completely neutralise the Ukrainian air force and air defence in the first hours of the war and to destroy the enemy's logistics and command bases.
Crucial to the fate of the war was to be the swift seizure of Kyiv and the assassination of the leadership of the Ukrainian state.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking to Western leaders in the early hours of the war, indicated that he did not know when or if at all they would be able to talk again.
The landing at the Hostomel airport instantly brought the Russians as close as 20 kilometres from the centre of Kyiv. Here we see footage from the Russian operation.
A convoy of heavy equipment, several dozen kilometres long, also set off for Kyiv, which at one point stretched for 64 kilometres from Prybirsk through Ivankiv to Hostomel.
At the same time, a mass exodus of Ukrainians from the country began.
¼ of Ukraine's population, some 8 million people, had left the country by March 20, 2022. Most of them headed for Poland.
Of which 90% were women and children.
The Russians' goal was the denazification and demilitarisation of Ukraine, including the extermination of the state leadership, in three days.
Nevertheless, it soon became apparent that these were vain hopes. The Ukrainians took the fight to every section of the frontline. Footage of destroyed Russian tanks, armoured vehicles and logistics equipment began to appear en masse online.
This footage was later skilfully distributed to the world by Ukrainians via social media. The Western infosphere was flooded with footage showing the heroism of Ukrainian soldiers.
At the same time, the recordings showed russian incompetence and the fact that Ukrainians will not give up their state without a fight.
Although it was the Russians who advanced in the early days, Kyiv had a total advantage in the information war.
The Western internet was quickly conquered by the story of the Snake Island soldiers who refused to give up their patch of land in a hopeless situation.
There was also the legend of the ‘Ghost of Kyiv', a pilot who allegedly had to his credit at least a dozen downings of enemy aircraft in a matter of days.
But the story of Vitaly Skakun, a sapper who blew up the bridge with himself to prevent the Russian army from advancing, was entirely true. As reported by the General Staff, the Henichesk bridge was mined, but the Ukrainian military failed to detonate it remotely at the advancing Russian forces.
Encouraged by the attitude of their army, also Ukrainian civilians directly showed their courage towards the aggressors. These are shots from Berdyansk.
Here, civilians block a tank and a convoy at an unknown location.
In the town of Konotop, residents are deliberating whether to fight the aggressor. The answer is clear.
Nevertheless, the aggressors continued to advance. They quickly broke through, especially in the south, reaching the right bank of the Dnieper river. Similarly, heavy fighting continued near Kyiv, where the Russians took, among others, Bucha and Hostomel. The second axis of attack on the capital came from the east.
Relentless rocket and artillery attacks across the country also continued.
The situation of Mariupol, defended by the Azov regiment, was beginning to be particularly dramatic. The city was becoming one big cemetery. The Russians bombed the city's theatre, even though it was a shelter for at least a thousand civilians. The sign saying ‘deti’, meaning ‘children’ created in front of the building, did not stop the Russians from bombing.
On 15 March, despite the country-wide war, the first foreign delegation appeared in Kyiv. The leaders of Poland, Czechia, and Slovenia came to the besieged capital in a gesture of support for the Ukrainian people.
In the first month of the war, the Russians pushed forward, stretching their own logistical lines, wanting to achieve their objectives as quickly as possible. This was brilliantly exploited by the Ukrainians, meticulously destroying Russian heavy equipment columns as well as those of logistics. Particularly effective were the hand-held anti-tank launchers supplied to Ukraine before the war, including Javelin and NLAW.
Consequently, the horrifying, multi-kilometre convoy of Russian hardware - consisting of hundreds of pieces of heavy military equipment - heading towards Kyiv - at one point stopped some 30 kilometres from Kyiv. This was the first sign of the Russians' strategic problems on the most important, Kyiv's direction.
After a month of heavy fighting, the Russians stalled and were pushed back from the outskirts of Kyiv. The situation became so dire that the Russian command decided to withdraw completely from the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions. The battle of Kyiv was won. Kyiv was defended. After theoretical observations, the vision of repelling the aggressor from Ukraine took shape for the first time.
The withdrawal of the Russians from the occupied territories revealed the first scale of the crimes and genocide committed by the invaders. Only in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv, did the authorities discover mass graves of more than 400 people. An eight-month visual investigation by The New York Times will later reveal that the perpetrators of the Yablonskaya Street massacre were Russian paratroopers from the 234th Assault Regiment commanded by Lt Col Artyom Gorodilov. Many more similar crime scenes will be uncovered in the future.
2 weeks after the fiasco of the Kyiv operation, the Kremlin suffers another humiliation. Theoretically, without an operational navy, Ukraine, using Neptune missiles, sinks the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, the cruiser Moskva.
The withdrawal from Kyiv was intended by the Russian command to strengthen Russian forces in the south of the country. This seems to have had the intended effect. On 8 May, Kremlin forces take Popasna.
The Russians control the entire southeastern part of the country - except for one bastion, Mariupol.
Cut off from supplies, the city's defenders barricaded themselves in the Azovstal factory area and successfully repelled enemy attacks for weeks. However, on 20 May, after 85 days of heroic fighting, the fortress of Mariupol falls.
Parallel to these developments, the Ukrainian armed forces are continuously supplied with military equipment from the West. The transit route starts in eastern Poland and runs through western Ukraine. Tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery systems are slowly flowing into Ukraine. The key hub for the supply is Rzeszów's Jasionka airport.
Western supplies are priceless for Kyiv's struggle, so the Russians are threatening the West with escalation and suggesting that the supply line will be cut by an attack from Belarus towards Lutsk.
However, the Kremlin itself contributes to strengthening Ukraine's military potential, as hundreds of pieces of Russian equipment land in the hands of Ukrainians after the first three months of fighting.
On 1 June, the US announces the shipment of HIMARS rocket artillery systems, which, in the months of war ahead, will be crucial for the fate of the war.
After taking Mariupol, the Russians advance towards Severodonetsk, where both sides suffer heavy losses. On 26 June, the city falls.
A week later, the Ukrainians also withdrew from Lysychansk. As it later turned out, this was to be the beginning of the end of the Russians' successes in the second phase of the war in Ukraine.
On 30 June, the Ukrainians liberate the famous Snake Island.
The Russian command consistently also continues its tactics of attacking civilian targets. On 1 July, a rocket hit a residential block in Serhiivka, killing at least 21 people.
On 14 July, a rocket attack on Vinnytsia killed 26 people.
On 17 August, an attack on dormitories in Kharkiv led to the death of 25 people. Such attacks were carried out regularly by the Russians.
Kyiv responded, but with attacks on military targets. On 9 August, the Ukrainians made a successful attack on the Crimean base of Saki, destroying 9 enemy aircraft. Russian logistics bases were also steadily destroyed by Ukrainian HIMARS attacks. Ukraine continued to receive further packages of military equipment from the West. The anticipation of a Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kherson was also growing.
The counter-offensive, however, did not take place in Kherson but in the Kharkiv region. On 9 September, a rapid rally by Kyiv's forces allows the Ukrainians to liberate Kupiansk, Balaklia and Izium, among others. Mass graves similar to those of Bucha are discovered in the liberated areas.
In response to the Ukrainians' successful campaign, two weeks later, Vladimir Putin orders a partial mobilisation, despite having pledged at the start of the war that it would not happen.
On 27 September, after a puppet vote, the Russian president announces the annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions to the Russian Federation, even though Russia does not fully control these areas.
The following day, on 28 September, acts of sabotage are carried out on the gas pipelines running on the bottom of the Baltic Sea - Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. To this day, it remains unclear who is behind their destruction. The action probably ends the life of both lines of the Russian-German gas pipeline completely.
On 1 October, The Ukrainian flag also flies over Lyman.
A week later, on 8 October, the most important Russian bridge in southern Ukraine, the Crimean Bridge, which is the only direct link from Crimea to Russia proper, is destroyed. Ordered to be fully repaired, the bridge is due to be completed by 1 July 2023, but according to British intelligence, the bridge will not be fully operational until September 2023.
Russia responds with massive rocket attacks across Ukraine. In Kyiv alone, at least 23 civilians are killed and more than 100 injured, with the new commander of Russian forces, General Surovikin, in charge of the operation.
On 1 November, Russia announces the end of its partial mobilisation. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian offensive does not stop. After a faint attack in August, on 9 November, Ukraine pushes Russia from the right bank of the Dnieper and liberates Kherson.
At the same time, the Russians are constantly carrying out a campaign of forced deportations of Ukrainians deep into Russia, repeating the actions of the Communists or Tsarist Russia. The United States says it has proof that the Russian authorities interrogated, detained and forcibly deported between 900 000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260 000 children. They were deported deep into Russia - often to isolated regions in the Far East.
On 23 November, after years of successful economic cooperation, the European Union declares the Russian Federation a state sponsor of terrorism, in effect excluding Russia as a player in the European security architecture. Whereas the war enters its winter period.
The Russians, after months of defeats, reinforced by numerous but poorly trained and equipped recruits, are set to attack again. The target is Bachmut.
However, despite the city being in the eye of a cyclone, President Volodymyr Zelensky turns up for a visit to Bakhmut, thanking its defenders for their incredible heroism. Washington, meanwhile, pledges to supply Ukraine with Patriot Air Defense systems.
Missile and Iranian drone attacks are sweeping across Ukraine. But Kyiv, having strengthened its air defence net, is able to knock down up to 80%-90% of incoming targets.
American HIMARS continue to wreak havoc on Russian ranks. On 1 January, in a New Year attack on a school in Makiivka, 400 Russians soldiers are killed and another 300 are wounded in a single HIMARS attack.
On 13 January, Russia achieves its first tactical success since the capture of Lysychansk back in June. Wagner's Group takes Soledar, but its leader, Prigozin, poses a threat to the Russian army's top brass. As a result of the triumph, a conflict between leading factions of the Russian side intensifies, resulting in Wagner being cut off from ammunition supplies.
The opposite situation is taking place in the Ukrainian camp. At the end of January, the Ramstein coalition decides to send Ukraine 1,600 Western-made heavy vehicles. Kyiv is also to receive its first Western-made tanks. Bachmut, despite being encircled on three sides, continues not to fall.
On 20 February, four days before the anniversary of the outbreak of the war, US President Joe Biden makes a surprise visit to Kyiv, where he promises that the support of the world's greatest superpower is ironclad and will last as long as it takes.
Today, 24 February, marks one year since the outbreak of war. A year of suffering and death but also heroism and hope. From the first days, when the future of the Ukrainian state was uncertain, to the great victory at the Battle of Kyiv and the magnificent counter-offensives at Kharkiv and Kherson, Ukraine and Ukrainians continue to fight for freedom. Their own and others'.
Kyiv was to be left alone as it was not part of any alliance commitments. But, it turns out that human morality goes beyond the statutory framework. The pressures imposed by Western societies on their governments to provide aid to the Ukrainians proved to be great. It culminated in President Joe Biden's visit to Kyiv, a place that a year ago was supposed to have fallen under Russian assault and its leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, was to have been exterminated.
A year later, the situation is drastically different. The Russians have suffered incalculable losses, not only militarily but also economically - as we discussed in our last material. Russia is under the largest sanctions regime in world history. Meanwhile, the support of the West, many times stronger than the Kremlin, for Ukraine is further described in many places as sacred. Moreover, Kyiv will come into possession of another large military package in the coming months.
Does this mean that the war will end soon? No. Nonetheless, the Ukrainians are powered by Western military and economic support but, above all, by their own desire for freedom. To the degree that this time next year, rather than preparing for another Russian assault on Bakhmut, they are well on the way to celebrating victory.
