Timeline of Russia-Ukraine war as it enters third month, 20 key moments

It has been two months since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, this year. Most of the cities of Ukraine have been ravaged in the war. Scores of civilians have lost their lives, while millions have fled to neighbouring countries even as there seems to be no end to the war anytime soon.

More than five million people have fled the country since Russian troops invaded on February 24, the UN refugee agency reported on April 22. Ukrainian forces has mounted stiff resistance and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions in an effort to force Russia to withdraw its troops. 

With Mariupol almost under full control of Russian forces after weeks of bombardment, those who have escaped the southern Ukrainian city share chilling accounts of being held in cramped, unclean, processing camps before being evacuated.

Read | President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urges Asian countries to 'change their attitude' toward Ukraine

On the other hand, Russia has also suffered losses in this war. The Ukrainian military claims that more than 21,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the fighting so far. This figure has been released by the Ukrainian Army. However, this figure has not been confirmed.

The war is claimed to have caused heavy damage to Russian military equipment and machinery. Recently, Russia suffered the biggest setback when its warship Moskva, known as 'Army's Pride', sank in the Black Sea after being badly damaged.

Timeline of Ukraine-Russia war

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(Image Source: Reuters)

1. On February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine on three fronts in the biggest assault against a European state since World War Two. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in a 'special military operation' in eastern Ukraine in a televised address.

2. On the same day, blasts were heard across Ukraine, including the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol. The historic Chornobyl Nuclear Plant was seized by Russian forces.

3. On February 25, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding that Moscow immediately stop its attack and withdraw all troops. The vote was 11 in favour, with Russia voting no and China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstaining. It showed significant but not total opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

4. India launched 'Operation Ganga' on February 26 to evacuate its nationals, mostly medical students from Ukraine.

5. The first round of talks between Ukraine and Russian officials took place in Belarus on February 28. Ukraine wanted an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces. No agreement was reached with the Russian delegation. 

6. On March 2, the European Union elbowed seven Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system. SWIFT, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is a secure messaging system that facilitates rapid cross-border payments and, therefore, international trade.

7. On March 4, Russia criminalised independent reporting on Ukraine war in a new law that threatened journalists with jail terms of up to 15 years for spreading 'fake news'.

8. Ukraine accused Russia of bombing a children's hospital in the besieged port city of Mariupol on March 9, during an agreed ceasefire to enable civilians trapped there to escape. Russia had said it would let thousands of civilians flee Mariupol and other besieged cities, but the city council said a hospital was hit several times during an airstrike.

9. On March 15, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the US Congress and Canada's House of Commons on the same day and urged them to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine, while imposing more sanctions on Russia. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other leaders of the NATO military alliance ruled out a no-fly zone in Ukraine.

10. Russian forces destroyed a theatre in Mariupol on March 16 where hundreds of women and children were sheltering. On the same day, Ukrainian officials reported that 10 people were killed in Chernihiv while standing in a bread line.

11. On March 22, satellite images showed 90% of Mariupol's infrastructure destroyed. Russia bombed the southeastern port city since the war began on February 24, and reduced it to ruins.

12. On March 25, Moscow signalled it was scaling back its ambitions to focus on territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists in the east. Ukrainian forces went on the offensive to recapture towns outside Kyiv. On the same day, the United Nations refugee agency said that about 3.7 million Ukrainians had fled the country since the Russian invasion began, with about two million refugees crossing into Poland.

(Image Source: Reuters)

13. On April 3-4, Ukraine accused Russian forces of carrying out a massacre in the town of Bucha. There were calls from around the world for new sanctions against Moscow. Russia's defence ministry denied the Ukrainian allegations, saying footage and photographs were 'yet another provocation' by the Ukrainian government. Ukraine said it found 410 bodies in towns near Kyiv.

14. On April 8, Ukraine and its allies blamed Russia for a missile attack on a train station in Kramatorsk that killed at least 52 people trying to flee the looming eastern offensive. Russia denied responsibility. The town's mayor estimated about 4,000 people were gathered there at the time.

15. Prime Minister Boris Johnson travelled to the conflict-torn Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on April 9 to demonstrate that the UK stands unwaveringly with Ukraine and offered fresh financial and military support to the country.

16. In a big blow, on April 14, Russia's lead warship in the Black Sea, the Moskva, sinks after an explosion and fire that Ukraine says was caused by its missile strike. Russia says the ship sank after an ammunition explosion. Washington believes the warship was hit by two Ukrainian missiles.

17. On April 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in the biggest battle of the Ukraine war, declaring the port city of Mariupol 'liberated', although hundreds of Ukrainian troops and civilians continued to hold out inside the massive Azovstal steel work plant. Ukrainian officials denied the Russian claim. 

18. On April 23, Russian forces try to storm Azovstal steel plant occupied by soldiers and civilians in the southern city of Mariupol, while attempting to crush the last corner of resistance in a place of deep symbolic and strategic value to Moscow, Ukrainian officials said.

19. Several explosions have been reported in Ukraine’s western city of Lviv, with a large plume of smoke cited in an unknown location. Air sirens were activated across Ukraine overnight, including in the Chernihiv, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.

20. In a latest, Moscow sent a note to Washington demanding it stops supplying weapons to Kyiv, Russia's ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, said in an interview with the Russia-24 TV channel, state news agency TASS reports.