One month ago, just after 4:45 a.m. Kyiv time on Feb. 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin went on television to announce what he called a “special operation” to “disarm and de-Nazify” Ukraine. His address was immediately followed by missile strikes on major Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, and multi-directional assaults towards Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kherson, and Mariupol.
Since then, Russian forces have launched more than 1,100 missilies onto the Ukrainian territory, according to Pentagon.
Russia has been shelling Ukrainian cities, large and small, forcing over 10 million Ukrainians to flee their homes, with 6.5 million being displaced inside the country and 3.6 million going abroad, according to the United Nations.
Russian forces have besieged several Ukrainian cities, attacked agreed-upon humanitarian corridors for evacuation and have committed multiple atrocities towards civilians, which have shocked the Ukrainian nation.
At least 977 civilians were killed and 1,594 injured, according to the UN, but the actual figures are belived to be significantly higher. According to the local authorities in Mariupol, a besieged seaport city in south-eastern Ukraine, over 2,000 residents were killed in the city alone. Russia's war took the lives of at least 128 children and injured at least 172 other children, according to Prosecutor General's Office.
Civilian infrastructure has been damaged across the country. Some 4,431 residential buildings, 548 schools, and 135 health care institutions were partially or completely destroyed, according to the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group.
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U.S. President Joe Biden signed the foreign aid bill containing close to $61 billion for Ukraine into law on April 24, marking the final step of the legislative process.
The proposal "would target those responsible for threatening the stability, security or sovereignty of EU member states or third countries by undermining elections, the rule of law, facilitating acts of violence or do so through the use of information manipulation and interference," Bloomberg wrote.
Speaking on national television, Andriy Yermak said Kyiv was "talking with many partners, primarily the U.S." about securing more of the badly needed systems and referred to recent news of German efforts to convince Washington to send more.
Along with many other Western companies, Hugo Boss suspended its retail operations in Russia after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The EU approved the four-year Ukraine Facility in February, allocating 33 billion euros ($35 billion) in loans and 17 billion euros ($18 billion) in grants.
Airbus has been granted a waiver by the Canadian government, allowing it to continue using Russian titanium after Ottawa became the first Western nation to ban the metal in its latest package of sanctions targeting the Kremlin, Reuters reported on April 23.
Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, backed in the first reading on April 24 a bill strengthening the state's oversight over the gambling business, lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko said.
The law would apply up to one year after the cancellation of martial law, which has been in place since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Speaking to KYIV24, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said some "logistical issues" still had to be resolved before he could take up his new position.
The document posted on the website of the Moscow City Diocese did not give an official reason for Dmitriy Safranov's suspension, but it is believed to be connected to Alexei Navalny's funeral.
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine presented the first opportunity to test how the system would work in a conventional ground war between two armies.
Drones of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) attacked two oil depots in Russia's Smolensk Oblast overnight, destroying 26,000 cubic meters of fuel, sources in law enforcement agencies told the Kyiv Independent on April 24.
Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, what were previously treated as acts of hooliganism have often been tried as acts of sabotage aimed at disrupting the Kremlin's war effort and those found guilty now face far harsher punishments.
Speaking ahead of the final vote in the Senate, Pentagon spokesperson General Pat Ryder did not provide specifics but said, "We would expect to be able to deliver aid within days."
Ukrainian drones reportedly hit an oil refinery in Voronezh Oblast and an "industrial zone" in Lipetsk Oblast overnight on April 24, according to Russian Telegram news channels.
Fires broke out at energy and fuel facilities in Russia's Smolensk Oblast following a Ukrainian drone attack, Smolensk Oblast Governor Vasily Anokhin claimed on April 24.
Citing testimony from people released from Russian captivity, Ukraine's UN envoy Sergiy Kyslytsya said that over 50 percent of detainees suffered torture, rape, or other forms of sexual violence.
Russian forces attacked Sumy Oblast 242 times in 51 separate attacks throughout the day, injuring four people, the Sumy Oblast Military Administration reported on April 23.