Civilians and servicemen attend funerals of Oleh Yashchyshyn, Serhiy Melnyk and Rostyslav Romanchuk, Ukrainian servicemen killed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at Lychakiv cemetery in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on March 15, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)
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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.
The body of a rocket stuck in a flat after recent shelling on the northern outskirts of Kharkiv on Feb. 24, 2022. (AFP/ Getty Images)Residents of Severodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast, hide in a basement during the heavy shelling by Russian forces on Feb. 28, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (2L) and Chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov in Moscow on Feb. 27, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)People remove personal belongings from a burning house after being shelled in the city of Irpin, outside Kyiv, on March 4, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)Ukrainians fleeing the war to Poland get for the train at Lviv train station on Feb. 28, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)Around 100,000 protesters crowd around the victory column and close to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to demonstrate against Russia's war in Ukraine on Feb. 27, 2022.(AFP/Getty Images)People cross a destroyed bridge as they evacuate from the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, during heavy shelling and bombing on March 5, 2022. (AFP/ Getty Images)U.S. President Joe Biden takes questions as he addresses the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the White House on Feb. 24, 2022, in Washington, DC. (AFP/Getty Images)A Ukrainian soldier holds a Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon (NLAW) that was used to destroy a Russian armored personal carrier (APC) in Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, on March 12, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)A staff member and the parents of a newborn baby hide in the bomb shelter of a maternity hospital on March 2, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Getty Images)Ukrainian servicemen patrol in the streets as security measures tightened due to the ongoing Russian attacks in the Black Sea port city of Odesa on March 14, 2022. Volunteers have placed sandbags around one of Odesa’s landmarks, the monument to Duke of Richelieu, to protect it from potential Russian bombardment. (Getty Images)Service members of Ukrainian Territorial Defense, Valery (3rdL) and Lesya (2ndL), get married not far from a checkpoint on the outskirts of Kyiv on March 6, 2022. (AFP/ Getty Images)President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference in Kyiv on March 3, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)Ukrainian emergency workers carry an injured pregnant woman from a maternity hospital that was damaged by Russian shelling in Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast on March 9, 2022. The mother and her unborn baby died. (Evgeniy Maloletka)Residents of Kherson block Russian military vehicles as Russian troops attempt to occupy the city. Kherson has been under the Russian control since March 5, 2022.A woman learns how to use an AK-47 assault rifle during a civilian self-defense course in the outskirts of Lviv on March 4, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)A mass grave in Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast, on March 9, 2022. According to local authorities, over 2,000 residents have been killed in the city since Feb. 24, 2022. (Mstyslav Chernov)A wounded woman is seen following an airstrike that damaged a residential building outside of Kharkiv on Feb. 24, 2022. (Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)Ukrainian soldiers search for bodies in the debris at the military school hit by Russian rockets the day before, in Mykolaiv on March 19, 2022. Ukrainian media reported that the attack had killed at least 40 Ukrainian soldiers at their brigade headquarters. (AFP/Getty Images)An evacuated resident is comforted by Svitlana Vodolaga, spokeswoman for the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (R) outside a burning apartment building in Kyiv on March 15, 2022, following attacks on residential areas that had killed at least two people. (AFP/Getty Images)
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Jan. 21 that he would likely impose additional sanctions against Russia if Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine.
The contract extensions comes after Defense Minister Rustem Umerov walked back on plans to merge the Defense Procurement Agency and the State Logistics Operator into one agency, following a NATO statement said that the two agencies should be kept separate and two separate supervisory boards established "to perform their tasks and supporting their independence and anti-corruption policies."
The wide-ranging agreement includes cooperation between the two countries in areas including defense, intelligence sharing, cyber security, nuclear safety, as well as mutual support for each others accession into the European Union, among other topics.
The contract, signed in 2019, had committed Moscow to invest at least $500 million in modernizing the port. With the agreement now void, all revenues from the port's operations will go directly to the Syrian state, and its management will revert to local authorities.
At least 200,000 European soldiers would be required to serve as peacekeepers on Ukraine's eastern front for a peace deal to be enforced, President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 21.
Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel proposed transferring Russian weapons seized by Israel in Lebanon to Ukraine during a Jan. 21 meeting with Ukrainian Ambassador Yevhen Korniychuk, Ukraine's embassy reported.
Germany's KNDS Deutschland, a manufacturer of Leopard 2 tanks, has officially opened a joint venture with a Ukrainian defense company, Ukraine's Strategic Industries Minister Herman Smetanin reported on Jan. 21.
"We want to end the war this year - not just quickly but fairly and reliably for all of us, for Ukrainians," he said. "So that they can return home, live in safety, and work."
"The teams have been working on a meeting; they are currently in the process," Zelensky said, emphasizing Ukraine's commitment to ending the war with Russia.
We are now working to ensure that the relevant meetings are held at the inter-parliamentary level and other levels," he said, as cited by Interfax Ukraine.
"Europe must establish itself as a strong global player," Zelensky said, adding that, while the United States remains an indispensable ally, Washington doubts Europe's ability to contribute meaningfully to global security.
The 78th Air Assault Regiment on Jan. 21 announced an internal investigation after a soldier of the unit pointed to excessive demands on his comrades that supposedly lead to exhaustion and fatal accidents when handling explosives.
The EU has reduced Russian gas imports by 75%, while only 3% of its oil is imported from Russia, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Jan. 21.
Former host of shuttered pro-Russian news channels, Max Nazarov, was taken into custody on suspicions of spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda, Suspilne reported on Jan. 21, citing a court ruling.
As state secretary, Marco Rubio will oversee the implementation of the president's foreign policy, including that relating to Russia's full-scale war — which wasn't directly referred to during Donald Trump's inauguration speech.
China has been decreasing coal imports from Russia despite a steady growth in demand, turning instead to Australian and Mongolian supplies, The Moscow Times reported on Jan. 21, citing Chinese customs data.
In the executive order, Donald Trump wrote that "the United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values," without mentioning specific examples.
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