Throughout February 2014, Russia began quietly increasing its presence at its Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol in Crimea. Toward the end of the month on Feb. 20, 2014, armed men without insignia moved to block off airports in Sevastopol and Simferopol and Ukrainian military bases on the peninsula and seized the Crimean Parliament building. The annexation effectively began Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine. Russia has occupied Crimea in the following days.

Russia-backed militants led by former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Igor Girkin (Strelkov) forcibly took control of Interior Ministry offices in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast, kicking off the invasion of the eastern region.

Oleksandr Turchynov, Ukraine's acting president following the EuroMaidan Revolution, announced the “Anti-Terrorist Operation” (ATO) in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in response to the invasion of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region by Russian-backed proxies. It was later renamed the Joint Forces Operation.

Over the summer of 2014, Ukrainian forces began to regain territories occupied by Russian-backed forces. Ukrainian forces regained full control of Mariupol on June 13, 2014, and liberated a number of cities in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, including Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, Sievierodonetsk, and Lysychansk in July 2014.

After almost a month of fierce fighting that began on Aug. 6, 2014 and lasted until Aug. 31, columns of Ukrainian soldiers who had been promised safe passage by Russian-backed proxies through a pre-agreed corridor out of the city were fired upon by heavy artillery. In total, 368 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in what is now known as the Ilovaisk massacre. More than 400 were wounded, and around 300 were captured. This was the biggest instant loss of the Ukrainian Armed Forces up until that point.

On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine as it was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 people on board, including 80 children, were killed. After an international investigation, a Dutch court in 2022 convicted two Russians, Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinsky, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko fighting on the Russian side with the downing of the airliner with a Moscow-provided Buk anti-air missile system. Russia continues to deny its involvement and blames Ukraine, spreading fakes about the circumstances and causes of the tragedy.

Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) signed the Minsk Protocol in the capital of Belarus — the first peace plan to try to stop the war. It failed, as Russian troops almost immediately breached the ceasefire.

The battle for Donetsk airport, one of the longest and bloodiest in the war, ended after 242 days of standoffs with Russian-backed troops, who far outnumbered Ukraine's forces. After enduring months of intense combat, the remaining Ukrainian soldiers on Jan. 21, 2015 left their positions in the air terminals, which had been nearly destroyed. The battle for the airport, whose defenders are widely known as “cyborgs,” has become a symbol of resistance.

A revised version of the Minsk Protocol, dubbed Minsk II, was signed following a successful Russian military campaign in February 2015 and huge losses on the Ukrainian side in the Battle of Debaltseve. The agreement did little to change the situation, with both sides fundamentally disagreeing on interpretations of the text. It was highly criticized for being convoluted and too similar to Minsk I.

Russian ships opened fire at three Ukrainian Navy boats as they tried to cross the Kerch Strait on their way to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol in the Azov Sea. It was the first time that Russia attacked Ukraine openly, under its own flag, without hiding behind its proxies. Moscow claimed that the vessels had “violated the prohibited area” despite the fact that the sea was commonly used by both countries. After the attack, Russia seized the Berdiansk and Nikopol military ships and the Yany Kapu tug and captured 24 Ukrainian sailors, six of whom were wounded. President Petro Poroshenko introduced martial law in 10 of Ukraine’s oblasts for 30 days in response.

A plane with 35 Ukrainians released from Russian captivity landed at Kyiv’s Boryspil International Airport on Sept. 7, 2019. The long-awaited exchange was the first mass prisoner swap since the beginning of Russia’s war in Donbas. It brought home film director Oleh Sentsov and 24 Ukrainian sailors among others.

The leaders of Ukraine, France, Germany, and Russia met in Paris on Dec. 9, 2019 as part of the Normandy Four meetings. The talks only resulted in a joint statement signed by the leaders of the countries present confirming that the Minsk agreements signed in February 2015 would form the basis of the peace process. It was the first and last time Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in person.

In April 2021, Russia began amassing a large number of its troops on the border with eastern Ukraine and in Crimea. A few months later, foreign media reported that the troop buildup had expanded, followed by numerous publications suggesting that Moscow might be preparing for a broader invasion of Ukraine. Many Ukrainian officials said they saw no signs of a threat and that the situation was “under control,” downplaying NATO countries’ warnings about the possible upcoming invasion and, closer to the end of the year, its detailed scenarios reported by Western journalists. The Ukrainian military said it was ready to fight back if necessary. As of mid-February 2022, Russia had amassed up to 190,000 troops on the border with Ukraine.

Three days before the launch of the full-scale invasion Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 21, 2022 announced Russia was recognizing the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine as belonging to illegitimate “independent states."

At 3:40 a.m. on Feb. 24, 2022, the first column of tanks entered the territory of Luhansk Oblast. A few minutes later, the Kremlin published an address by Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he launched what he euphemistically called "a special military operation" against Ukraine, de facto declaring war on the country. Soon after, explosions occurred in several cities across Ukraine. Russia launched air strikes on dozens of targets across Ukraine as its troops launched a ground offensive from Russia, Belarus, and the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, moving deeper into the country.

A Russian warplane on March 16, 2022 dropped a bomb on a drama theater in besieged Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast where about 1,000 people had been taking shelter. The theater had the word “children” written on the ground in front of it to indicate that there were children sheltering there. The data on the number of deaths vary. An investigation by the Associated Press showed that Russia’s air strike could have killed 600 residents.

After more than a month of heavy fighting, Russia's attempts to encircle Kyiv failed. Its troops retreated from the outskirts of the capital while Ukrainian flags were raised over Hostomel, Irpin, and other Kyiv suburbs. Ukraine’s victory was overshadowed by evidence of the horrific war crimes that the Russian army committed against civilians in the towns of Kyiv Oblast uncovered after liberation. Hundreds of residents of the Kyiv suburb of Bucha were found to have been tortured, raped, and executed.

The Russian flagship Moskva, the pride of its fleet, sunk in the Black Sea a day after Ukraine hit it with two domestically-produced Neptune anti-ship missiles. One of the most symbolic and expensive losses in the war, the sinking of the Moskva paved the way for the liberation of Snake Island, which helped to unblock shipping trade routes, and reduce threats of Russia’s attacks from the Black Sea, Ukraine's military intelligence said.

Mariupol, a city in Donetsk Oblast with a pre-war population of about 500,000 people, came under siege at the end of February 2022, becoming synonymous with Russian crimes against Ukraine. After 86 days of defending the encircled city under heavy bombardment, about 2,500 Ukrainian fighters surrendered from the Azovstal steel plant – their last stronghold — after Ukrainian commanders ordered the defending garrison to lay down their arms. All of them were captured by Russia. According to authorities’ rough estimates, at least 25,000 people could have been killed during the siege of Mariupol. The exact number of dead remains unknown and could be much higher.

Ukraine’s Armed Forces on June 30, 2022 recaptured Snake Island, located around 35 kilometers off the shore of Ukraine's southern Odesa Oblast. The one-square-kilometer island became infamous as the site where a Ukrainian soldier told the Russian Moskva warship to “go f*ck yourself” before surrendering to Russian forces on Feb. 24. Snake Island is considered strategically important, as it allows controlling the ground and, to some extent, the air space in southern Ukraine. After its liberation, Ukraine regained control of a part of the Black Sea.

An overnight explosion on July 29, 2022 at the Olenivka prison in occupied Donetsk Oblast killed 53 and injured over 100 Ukrainian prisoners of war, including Azov Regiment soldiers captured by Russia in Mariupol. Moscow accused Ukraine of attacking the prison with HIMARS, a high-precision rocket system, but presented no proof. Kyiv said that Russia killed Ukrainian prisoners of war to conceal evidence of torture. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the blast was caused by a thermobaric munition.

Ukraine’s Armed Forces launched an unexpected, lightning counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast on Sept. 6, 2022. Over the course of six days, Ukraine liberated almost all the occupied territories in the oblast from Russia, including Balakliya, Izium, and Kupiansk, a key logistics hub. Following the liberation of Kharkiv Oblast, Ukrainian investigators uncovered numerous cases of Russian war crimes, including torture chambers and a mass grave in Izium.

Ukraine and Russia on Sept. 21, 2022 conducted the biggest prisoner swap since the start of the full-scale war. A total of 215 defenders were released from captivity, including 108 Azov fighters, five Azovstal commanders, and 10 foreign fighters. Kyiv handed over 56 people to Moscow, including the high-profile pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk.

Early in the morning of Oct. 8, 2022, the Kerch Bridge, which connects mainland Russia with the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, was set ablaze after a powerful blast. The attack was the result of a special operation by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The 19-kilometer bridge is a critical supply and transport route for Russian forces in Crimea and occupied Ukraine, and has been the target of repeated attacks. On July 17, 2023, it was hit by experimental Ukrainian "Sea Baby" marine drones. Both attacks collapsed sections of the road bridge.

Ukrainian troops entered Kherson on Nov. 11, 2022, the only regional capital that Russia had managed to capture since the start of the full-scale invasion. Locals took to the streets to celebrate liberation from Russian occupation wrapped in Ukrainian flags. During the extended counteroffensive launched in late August 2022, Ukrainian soldiers recaptured dozens of settlements on the west bank of the Kherson region.

Russia struck a high-rise building in the city of Dnipro with a Kh-22 missile designed to destroy aircraft carriers. A total of 46 residents, including six children, were killed and over 80 were injured in one of the war's deadliest attacks.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin along with Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova over their role in the deportation of Ukrainian children. Since February 2022, the Ukrainian government has identified over 19,500 children as having been abducted from Russian-occupied territories and sent to Russia, Belarus, or Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine. Only 388 of them have been able to return home so far.

Fierce fighting occurred in and around the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine between August 2022 and May 20, 2023, when Russia officially took control of the area. It is considered to be the bloodiest battle of Russia’s full-scale invasion so far. Despite defeat in the battle, Ukraine said it had succeeded in inflicting major casualties on the Russian side. The U.S. estimated Russia's casualties in Bakhmut at 100,000 soldiers.

In the early morning of June 6, 2023, an explosion occurred at the Kakhovka dam in the Russian-occupied part of Kherson Oblast, causing a humanitarian and environmental disaster across southern Ukraine. Russia was in control of the dam at the time and it is widely believed that Russian forces destroyed it to hinder Ukraine’s anticipated counteroffensive. The dam’s destruction flooded Kherson and dozens of other settlements on both the Ukraine-controlled west bank and the Russian-occupied east bank. The catastrophe forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes and posed a threat to Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's largest nuclear plant. According to Ukrainian officials, more than 30 people died in the Ukraine-controlled territories, while the death toll in the nearby Russian-occupied areas could have reached the hundreds.

Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed he was launching a “march for justice” against Russian military leaders after alleging that a missile strike on his mercenary forces in Ukraine had caused substantial casualties. The mercenary group briefly took under partial control the Russian city of Rostov and was moving toward Moscow Oblast before ending its short-lived rebellion after Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal to allow Prigozhin and his Wagner forces to leave for Belarus.

As Ukraine marked the 500th day of the all-out war, five Azovstal commanders, Denys Prokopenko, Serhiy Volynskyi, Sviatoslav Palamar, Denys Shleha, and Oleh Khomenko were allowed to return to Ukraine. After being released from Russian captivity, they were originally supposed to stay in Turkey until the end of the war under the personal guarantees of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Russia pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, effectively collapsing the deal. The agreement, brokered by Turkey and the UN in July 2022, played a crucial role in mitigating a global surge in food prices partially caused by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine by allowing Kyiv to export its agricultural products via the Black Sea despite the ongoing invasion. Immediately after the collapse of the deal, Russia started targeted attacks on ports in southern Ukraine.

Russia launched a missile strike against the village of Hroza in Kharkiv Oblast, killing 59 people in what was the deadliest attacks on civilians since the start of the full-scale invasion. Those killed had gathered in a cafe to commemorate fallen soldier Andriy Kozyr when a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile smashed into the building full of civilians. The attack killed approximately half of the village's population.

In early June 2023, the Ukrainian military launched its long-awaited counteroffensive aimed at pushing toward the Sea of Azov to cut Russia's land corridor to Crimea. Failing to reach its goals, it was limited to the liberation of a few villages in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk oblasts, significantly slowed down by Russian minefields and a lack of air superiority and equipment. Ukraine did carry out a series of surprising operations in occupied Crimea and destroyed a number of Russian Black Sea Fleet’s vessels.

President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi on Feb. 8, 2024 following months of speculation about a rift between the two. The general, who had led the country's army since July 2021, was replaced by Commander of the Ukrainian Land Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi as part of a broader military leadership reshuffle.

Ukrainian soldiers retreated from Avdiivka on Feb. 18 after months of fierce fighting resumed in October 2023. The city, located north of Russian-occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, had been a Ukrainian stronghold for 10 years and a target of Russia’s since 2014. Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that the decision to withdraw was made to avoid encirclement and to preserve the lives of fighters, however, some of them were captured by Russian troops during the withdrawal.