With 8,006 civilians killed and around 13, 287 injured according to UN Human Rights data, the war in Ukraine has now gone on for more than a year. Here are the major events of the war in each month, since February 24, 2022:
24 Feb 2022: Russia invades Ukraine from North, East, and South. Over the next couple of days, the two biggest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv, come under intense shelling and missile attacks.
March: Russia takes the Kherson region and seeks to form a land bridge between Crimea and the Donbas oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk. The largest number of civilians were killed this month.
April: Russian forces pull back from Kyiv; evidence emerges of civilian massacre in Bucha (above). Ukrainians start retaking territory in North; sink Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva.
May: Mariupol falls after weeks of bombardment and Ukrainian resistance; Azovstal steel plant reduced to ruins; Russia takes all of the Black Sea coasts except Odesa.
June: Ukraine retakes Snake Island in the Black Sea off Odesa, which Russia had captured on day 1 of the war; morale-boosting victory hits aura of Russian naval prowess.
July: US-made HIMARS deployed. All of Luhansk falls to Russia; the bloody war in Donbas has ground along slowly since. Fears rise around Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
August: Ukraine launches major counteroffensive in Kherson using West-supplied weapons; targets Russian air base in Crimea. IAEA inspectors are allowed in Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
September: Counteroffensive gains momentum; Ukraine takes back most of Kharkiv. Reports of demoralisation in Russian ranks. Nord Stream undersea pipelines are sabotaged.
October: Blast hits Kerch Strait Bridge linking Crimea with Russia. Russia seeks to cripple Ukraine’s energy infra; annexes Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.
Nov-Dec: Russia withdraws from Kherson city to the eastern side of Dnipro; war drags on with no major gains to either side; Ukraine drones hit military bases inside Russia.
Jan-Feb: Ukraine hits building in Donetsk housing Russian troops; Moscow says 89 soldiers dead. The US, the UK and Germany say will send tanks to Ukraine; Biden visits Kyiv (above).