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War In Ukraine: How The First Week Unfolded

    Advertisement After ringing Ukraine with tens of thousands of troops, Russia invades its neighbour in the early hours of February 24, setting off … Continue reading War In Ukraine: How The First Week Unfolded


Refugees from many diffrent countries – from Africa, Middle East and India – mostly students of Ukrainian universities are seen at the Medyka pedestrian border crossing fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, in eastern Poland on February 27, 2022. As Ukraine braces for a feared Russian invasion, its EU member neighbours are making preparations for a possible influx of hundreds of thousands or even millions of refugees fleeing military action. Wojtek RADWANSKI / AFP
Refugees from Ukraine walk a road after crossing the Moldova-Ukrainian border's checkpoint near the town of Palanca on March 1, 2022. Nikolay DOYCHINOV / AFP
Refugees from Ukraine walk a road after crossing the Moldova-Ukrainian border’s checkpoint near the town of Palanca on March 1, 2022.
Nikolay DOYCHINOV / AFP

 

 

After ringing Ukraine with tens of thousands of troops, Russia invades its neighbour in the early hours of February 24, setting off the worst conflict in Europe in decades.

As Ukraine fights for its existence, we look back on seven days that have shaken the world.

 

Russia invades

At dawn last Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announces a “special military operation” to “demilitarise and de-nazify” Ukraine and support Moscow-backed separatists in the east.

He threatens countries that interfere with “consequences that you have never known before”.

A full-scale invasion starts immediately with air and artillery strikes on several cities. Russian forces also briefly take control of an airfield on the outskirts of Kyiv.

Ukraine declares martial law and cuts ties with Russia.

 

Refugees flee

Refugees pour out of Ukraine into Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova and Slovakia. Within a week more than a million flee abroad.

On Friday, European countries begin closing their airspace to Russian airlines and EU members begin slapping sanctions on Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

 

Ukraine resists

Ukrainian forces put up stronger-than-expected resistance, frustrating Russian plans for a lightning takeover.

In a series of selfie videos President Volodymyr Zelensky vows to stay put and lead the resistance. “I need ammunition, not a ride,” he tells the Americans, who offer to evacuate him.

As fears that Kyiv will fall quickly fail to materialise, videos emerge of Ukrainians trying to block Russian tanks with their bare hands, or berating Russian soldiers in the street.

On Saturday, Russia orders its troops to advance “from all directions”.

 

Nuclear threat

On Sunday, Putin ratchets up tensions further by putting Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert.

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world take part in Ukraine solidarity marches.

The EU says it will spend nearly half a billion euros on arming Ukraine as member nation pledge their own military aid. Unprecedented sanctions remove some of Russia’s banks from the SWIFT interbank payment system.

The invasion also sparks a radical rethink in German defence policy, with Berlin massively hiking military spending.

 

Kharkiv blasted during talks

A first round of talks between Kyiv and Moscow held on Ukraine’s border with Belarus on Monday fails to make headway.

As the talks go on, civilian districts of Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv are shelled and hit by rockets. Zelensky makes an impassioned appeal for his country to be given “immediate” EU membership.

In Kyiv, the army says it has fought off several attempts by Russian forces to storm the outskirts.

The ruble collapses with Russia’s central bank doubling its main interest rate to try to prop it up.

 

Russian gains in south

On Tuesday, satellite images show a massive column of Russian vehicles bearing down on Kyiv.

Russia is kicked out of the 2022 World Cup as its forces surround the southern city of Kherson as well as the strategic Black Sea port of Mariupol, which is left without power.

A missile strike devastates Kharkiv’s city hall.

During his State of the Union address President Joe Biden labels Putin a “dictator”.

 

Russian media silenced

On Wednesday, Russian paratroopers land in Kharkiv, which continues to be pounded by shelling and missiles, with university buildings among those hit.

Russia blocks an independent television channel and a liberal radio station on Wednesday, with a virtual blackout on news of the war.

For the first time, Moscow gives a death toll for its troops, saying 498 have been killed.

 

New talks

A week after the offensive began, the Russians take Kherson, the first major city to fall.

Ukrainian and Russian officials travel to the Belarus-Poland border for a second round of talks.

 

 

A Ukrainian serviceman smokes at a position on the front line with Russia-backed separatists near the settlement of Troitske in the Lugansk region on February 22, 2022, a day after Russia recognised east Ukraine’s separatist republics and ordered the Russian army to send troops there as “peacekeepers”. (Photo by Anatolii STEPANOV / AFP)

 

Women look after their babies at the pediatrics center after the unit was moved to the basement of the hospital which is being used as a bomb shelter, in Kyiv on February 28, 2022. (Photo by Aris Messinis / AFP)

 

This handout picture released by the Ukraine Presidency press service on February 28, 2022 shows Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (C), Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal (R) and Ukraine’s Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk attend a signing of the application for membership in the European Union. (Photo by UKRAINE PRESIDENCY / AFP) 

 

A 19 year old Ukrainian soldier named Yevhen lays in bed in a military hospital in Lviv on March 1, 2022, after being injured by a mine in the Luhansk region. (Photo by Daniel LEAL / AFP)

 

Firefighters work to contain a fire in the complex of buildings housing the Kharkiv regional SBU security service and the regional police, allegedly hit during recent shelling by Russia, in Kharkiv on March 2, 2022. (Photo by Sergey BOBOK / AFP)

 

A woman says goodbye as a train with evacuees is about to leave Kyiv’s railway station on March 2, 2022.  (Photo by Sergei CHUZAVKOV / AFP)

 

An Ukrainian soldier hugs his partner next to a military base where residents are queuing to join the army, in Lviv on March 2, 2022. (Photo by Daniel LEAL / AFP)

 

A woman holds her child as she arrives from Odessa at a train station in Lviv, western Ukraine, on March 3, 2022. (Photo by Daniel LEAL / AFP)

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council in Moscow on February 21, 2022. (Photo by Alexey NIKOLSKY / Sputnik / AFP)

 

A woman carries her belongings as people evacuated from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic sit in a bus waiting for their train to be evacuated deep into Russia, in the town of Taganrog on February 20, 2022.  (Photo by Andrey BORODULIN / AFP)

 

 

This handout picture released on February 19, 2022 by the press service of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in an unknown location of Ukraine shows Ukrainian soldiers taking part in exercises on February 18, 2022. (Photo by Armed Forces of Ukraine / AFP) 

 

A woman walks with her baby walk in the eastern Ukrainian town of New York on February 20, 2022.  (Photo by Aris Messinis / AFP)