How One Month of War in Ukraine Ground to a Bloody Stalemate

One month after President Vladimir V. Putin ordered his navy forces to invade Ukraine, Russia has triggered a humanitarian disaster unseen in Europe because the finish of World Battle II whereas attaining virtually none of its navy goals.

Ukraine’s main cities stay below authorities management, together with the capital, Kyiv. Moscow had hoped to rapidly topple the federal government of President Volodymyr Zelensky, which Mr. Putin mentioned was managed by “Nazis,” however the Ukrainian chief has not solely survived however continues to encourage resistance at dwelling.

However the toll on civilians grows by the hour. Half the nation’s 7.5 million kids have been pressured from their houses.

Tens of millions extra civilians are stranded in cities and cities being bombarded each day by Russian forces. Throughout jap and southern Ukraine, peaceable villages are in ruins, Russian forces have destroyed essential infrastructure, leaving huge swaths of the nation with out energy, warmth and water. A whole lot of hundreds of Ukrainians now sleep in basements, subway stations and bomb shelters hoping they are going to be alive to see the daybreak.

The battle is way from over and navy analysts counsel it may flip right into a grueling battle of attrition, the place Russia can have the benefit of vastly superior weapons and a military that’s many instances bigger than that of its smaller neighbor.

Here’s a look again on the first month of the battle:

Week One

Feb. 24 to March 3

Explosions started thundering throughout Ukraine earlier than 5 a.m. on Feb. 24, minutes after President Putin declared the beginning of a “particular navy operation” to “demilitarize” Ukraine.

Russian troops attacked from Belarus, pushing south although the extremely radioactive Chernobyl exclusion zone, as they superior towards Kyiv. Within the south, Russian tanks and troopers blazed out of staging positions in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. These forces had been joined by naval infantry who got here ashore in amphibious assaults, and Russia moved rapidly to safe territory alongside the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.

Kherson grew to become the primary main Ukrainian metropolis to fall. Russian troops additionally gained floor to the east as they moved on Mariupol. There have been fears that the very important southern port metropolis may quickly be encircled by Russian forces.

Within the east, the Russian navy used the breakaway areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, managed by Russian-back forces, as a springboard to launch devastating assaults, together with towards Ukraine’s second largest metropolis, Kharkiv.

In simply seven days, a million folks fled the nation, in line with the United Nations. Tens of millions extra sought security within the western reaches of Ukraine.

An unlimited community of Ukrainian volunteers emerged to assist these stranded within the cities below assault. Martial legislation was declared, forbidding males between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the nation, and tens of hundreds of Ukrainians picked up weapons for the primary time as they joined territorial protection models.

Alcohol was banned and eating places across the nation emptied their glass bottles so that they may very well be used for Molotov cocktails.

President Biden warned in a defiant State of the Union deal with that Mr. Putin “has no thought what’s coming.” Western allies, transferring swiftly and largely in unison, imposed a sweeping package deal of sanctions that left the Russian economic system reeling.

Russian artillery and rocket fireplace was more and more geared toward civilian infrastructure, reducing off necessities like electrical energy, drugs, water and warmth. In Kyiv alone, 15,000 folks began sleeping within the subways.

“We’ve hardly slept for seven nights,” President Zelensky mentioned after one week of battle. However he added, “At present you, Ukrainians, are an emblem of invincibility.”

Week Two

March 3-10

As Russia continued to bombard cities throughout Ukraine, the battle started to actual an rising toll past the battlefield and inside Russia itself.

President Biden banned Russian oil imports, roiling power markets. Companies, together with McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, closed operations in Russia, rapidly turning the nation into a global pariah.

Nonetheless, high U.S. intelligence officers instructed Congress that Mr. Putin confirmed no indicators of adjusting course. Confronted with navy setbacks and a decided Ukrainian resistance, Russia stepped up its assaults on civilians.

Kyiv, a contemporary European metropolis, was quickly remodeled right into a fortress metropolis. The barricades within the southern port metropolis of Odessa had been raised. And the western metropolis of Lviv ready for an extended wrestle.

In Mariupol, now encircled by Russian forces, a whole lot of hundreds of individuals remained trapped with out water, electrical energy and different fundamental providers. The bombing of a maternity ward within the metropolis grew to become a worldwide image of the savage battle.

The United Nations reported that greater than two million Ukrainians — half of them kids — had fled the nation.

However as Russian forces suffered heavy losses, it was turning into clear that the Kremlin’s navy planners, to not point out Mr. Putin himself, had dramatically miscalculated, not solely concerning the grit of Ukrainian resistance but additionally the calamitous financial penalties for Russia.

Mr. Zelensky vowed to by no means give in to Russia’s tanks, troops or artillery shells.

“We are going to combat until the tip, at sea, within the air,” Mr. Zelensky mentioned in a video deal with to Britain’s Parliament. “We are going to combat within the forests, within the fields, on the shores, within the streets.”

Week 3

March 10-17

Russian forces, battered by a decided Ukrainian resistance, stepped up their aerial bombardment throughout Ukraine, concentrating on areas removed from the entrance strains whereas persevering with to pummel cities already devastated by preventing.

The renewed Russian push got here because the battle took a decidedly darker flip, with a whole lot of hundreds of individuals now residing in primeval circumstances in besieged cities as Russian forces tried to batter the nation into submission.

The state of affairs was catastrophic in Mariupol, the place the variety of lifeless grew each day. Our bodies had been buried in trenches and backyards. A theater believed to shelter as many as 1,300 folks was destroyed by a Russian missile regardless of being clearly marked as a refuge for youngsters. It isn’t recognized how many individuals died in that one assault and there was no dependable estimate for the quantity killed within the metropolis.

Different cities below assault by Russian troops reported more and more barbaric assaults. Dozens of faculties, hospitals and residential buildings throughout the nation had been destroyed, in line with worldwide observers together with the United Nations.

Vicious preventing within the cities round Kyiv inflicted heavy losses on each armies.

With Russia’s forces struggling on the battlefield, Mr. Putin referred to as pro-Western Russians “scum and traitors” who wanted to be faraway from society. He described the battle in Ukraine as a part of an existential conflict with the USA and set the stage for an ever fiercer crackdown on dissent at dwelling and much more aggression overseas.

Week 4

March 17-24

As the primary month of the battle drew to an in depth, with Russian forces nonetheless unable to grab main cities, there was an rising consensus within the West that the battle had reached a bloody stalemate.

Russia continued to make some positive factors within the jap a part of the nation and it continued to carry territory within the south round Kherson. However with its floor forces assembly stiff Ukrainian resistance, Russia more and more turned to long-range missiles to focus on Ukrainian navy and civilian infrastructure.

In a battle of attrition, navy analysts mentioned, Russia sought to interrupt down the Ukrainian navy whereas crushing the general public’s spirit with relentless assaults.

Firing rockets and bombs from the land, the air and from warships within the Sea of Azov, Russian forces broadened their bombardment of the besieged Ukrainian metropolis of Mariupol. Its troopers forcibly deported hundreds of residents, in line with metropolis officers and witnesses.

An artwork faculty, the place about 400 residents had been hiding, was destroyed. The variety of casualties was not recognized. Throughout Ukraine, half of the nation’s kids had been pressured to flee their houses.

Ukrainian forces mounted ever extra aggressive counter offensives on a number of fronts, together with round Kyiv, the place the extra closely armed Russians had been nonetheless unable to this point to realize a decisive benefit.

The Russians continued to endure heavy losses. The Pentagon estimated that in three weeks of preventing, 7,000 Russian troopers had been killed — better than the variety of American troops killed over 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There was rising concern amongst Western leaders that Mr. Putin would possibly flip to unconventional weapons in an try to regain momentum, a difficulty hanging over a summit and conferences held between President Biden and allied nations on Thursday.

Forward of the conferences, Mr. Zelensky renewed his requires the West to produce his nation with weapons to combat the Russians.

“Life may be defended solely when united,” he mentioned. “Freedom should be armed.”