# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
News Story Investigation- Ukraine's Invasion (2)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Russia's invasion and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine is today not just an assault on Ukrainian freedom and liberty, but also a threat to global order, said U.S. officials.

Two years ago today, on Feb. 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Since then, Russia has failed to capture Kyiv, take control of the Ukrainian government, or stifle the spirit of the Ukrainian people.

"The scale of Putin's blunder is especially stark today," said Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III in a statement yesterday. "The Kremlin's forces failed to win the Battle of Kyiv, failed to topple Ukraine's democratically elected government, and failed to crush the will of the Ukrainian people.

"Ukraine has retaken more than half of the sovereign territory that was grabbed by the Kremlin's forces in 2022," he continued. "And as a result of Putin's unprovoked war, Russia has suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties, lost significant equipment, and severely set back its military modernization program."

Russia's war in Ukraine is not just a threat to Ukraine or the nations that share a border with it. Russia's war in Ukraine serves as a threat to all of Europe and the rest of the world, including the United States, President Joe Biden said.

"The American people and people around the world understand that the stakes of this fight extend far beyond Ukraine," Biden said in a statement released yesterday. "Ten years ago, Putin occupied Crimea and created puppet regimes in Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Two years ago, he tried to wipe Ukraine off the map. If Putin does not pay the price for his death and destruction, he will keep going. And the costs to the United States - along with our NATO allies and partners in Europe and around the world - will rise."

Today, as part of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the United States continues to stand with Ukraine, along with international allies and partners, to provide what it needs for its defense now and in the future, Austin said.

"Since 2022, I have regularly convened some 50 countries from around the world as part of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group," Austin said. "This global coalition works together to ensure that Ukraine has the capabilities that it needs to defend its people from Russian aggression and take back its sovereign territory."

The first contact group meeting happened in April 2022 in Germany. At the time, Austin hosted nearly 40 nations to discuss current and future efforts to provide the support for Ukraine to maintain its sovereignty. Today, that monthly meeting has grown to some 50, like-minded nations that are united in their support of Ukraine's freedom.

"I hosted the most recent meeting of this contact group just last week, and I was struck again by the steadiness of its members' collective resolve," Austin said. "This historic coalition has committed more than $87 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of Putin's war - including 15 U.S. allies that, as a percentage of [gross domestic product], contribute more to Ukraine's capability needs than the United States."

Since the start of the Russian invasion, the U.S. has provided, through presidential drawdown authority and the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, more than $44.2 billion in security assistance to Ukraine.

Presidential drawdown authority allows the president in certain circumstances to withdraw weapons, ammunitions and materiel from existing U.S. military stocks and provide that to other nations. As part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, DOD contracts for the purchase of materiel to be sent.

Included in the materiel that has been sent to Ukraine are: air defense systems, radar systems, artillery systems, tanks, helicopters, ground-combat and support vehicles, unmanned aerial systems, missiles, rockets, and millions of rounds of small arms ammunition.

It's not just equipment and weapons that is needed by Ukraine. Since the start of Russia's invasion, the U.S. and partner nations have also provided important training to Ukrainians to improve their combat skills and to help them learn to use the equipment that the U.S. and partners have provided.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III

The U.S. and partners have trained more than 123,000 Ukrainians at more than 80 locations around the world. The U.S. alone has provided training to some 19,000 Ukrainian service members on combined arms, specific combat platforms, and staff and leadership skills.

Also in the U.S., Ukrainian service members are being trained on the use of the F-16 aircraft. Other Ukrainian service members, both pilots and aircraft maintainers, are also in the United States to attend English-language classes as part of the F-16 training coalition led by Denmark and the Netherlands.

Going forward, Austin said, the U.S. must continue to stand with Ukraine, not just for the sake of Ukraine's own freedom and security, but for that of the world, as well.

"Today's grim milestone should spur us all to decide what kind of future we want for our children and grandchildren: an open, secure, and prosperous world of rules and rights or the violent and lawless world of aggression and chaos that Putin seeks," Austin said. "We support Ukraine's fight for freedom, both because it is the right thing to do and because doing so is central to America's continued security. After two years of Putin's reckless and lawless war, we salute Ukraine's brave defenders, and we wish Ukraine's unbowed citizens peace, security and freedom."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Two Years in, Russia's War on Ukraine Continues to Pose Threat to Global Security

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Russia's invasion and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine is not just an assault on Ukrainian freedom and liberty, but also a threat to global order, U.S. officials said. ,

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ukraine's counter-offensive has now been under way for more than four months and may have now achieved a breakthrough ahead of the usually harsh winter.

Here are the latest developments:

Ukraine says its forces have gained a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river - potentially allowing it to transfer vital equipment across the river

Russia has been focusing its efforts on eastern Ukraine with fighting continuing around Bakhmut and near Donetsk

Ukraine's claims foothold across river

Ukrainian forces say they have gained a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river about 30km (19 miles) from the city of Kherson.

The river has separated Ukrainian and Russian forces since Moscow's troops withdrew from Kherson a year ago.

If the area is held it would mean a significant advance for Ukraine as it may be able to begin transferring armoured vehicles and air defence systems across the river putting it a step closer to breaking through to Crimea, the peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

The success was claimed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak shortly after US-based experts said that marginal advances had been made into the village of Krynky, 2km (1.25 miles) inland from the river.

Russia conceded on 15 November that "small groups" of Ukrainian forces had set up positions in the village but insisted they had sustained heavy losses and had no chance of breaking through.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed official in charge of the Russian-occupied areas of the Kherson region, said they faced a "fiery hell", adding: "Our additional forces have now been brought in. The enemy is trapped in Krynky."

His admission that Ukrainian forces had gained a foothold came two days after Russian state media published and then swiftly retracted news of a retreat from positions on the eastern bank.

Ukrainian forces have conducted several raids in small boats across the Dnipro, Ukraine's longest river, during the spring and summer. However, Kyiv lacks air superiority, which made the task more difficult.

The battle for Bakhmut

Russia's main effort has been focused on eastern Ukraine, according to analysts from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The city of Bakhmut, which has endured some of the heaviest fighting of the war, has been under Russian control for several months and, although Ukraine gained some ground in the surrounding areas over the summer, including the villages of Kupyansk and Andriivka, the battles continue.

Russian forces are also claiming to have made advances around the town of Avdiivka near the city of Donetsk.

President Zelensky said on 14 November that fighting was escalating near the town but added that Russian forces were losing men and equipment trying to capture it.

The UK Ministry of Defence says Russia is "almost certainly attempting a pincer movement to encircle the town", and notes its proximity to Donetsk means it holds political importance to Russia.

The MoD assessment is that recent advances suggest Russian forces are closing in on the coke and chemical plant to the north of the town, which is still held by Ukrainian forces and occupies a key tactical position.

The plant dominates the main road into Avdiivka and, the MoD believes if Russian forces were to secure it, resupplying the town would "become increasingly difficult for Ukraine". However the building gives Ukraine a "localised defensive advantage" and the MoD says that Russian forces will probably suffer significant losses if they attempt to assault the facility.

Attacks on Crimea

As part of its counter-offensive Ukraine has also stepped up attacks on the Crimean peninsula - including a missile attack on the port of Sevastopol on 22 September which it says killed 34 Russian officers.

That attack came just over a week after another major attack on the same city, which is the headquarters of the fleet, that is thought to have destroyed a ship and a submarine.

It also caused significant damage to the dry docks, which are vital for maintenance of the entire Russian Black Sea fleet.

The next day Ukraine said it had succeeded in destroying a sophisticated Russian air defence system - the S-400 - on the peninsular.

Attacks in late August destroyed another S-400 and others knocked out Russian radar positions on offshore gas platforms.

Russia's Black Sea fleet is an important target for Kyiv - its ships have launched missiles at Ukraine causing devastating damage.

It has also been threatening to block the Black Sea shipping routes that Ukraine has been using to export grain - which is a particular sticking point for Kyiv currently.

Moscow pulled out of the internationally brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative in mid-July, which guaranteed safe passage of non-military vessels, arguing that Russia's own agricultural exporters were being disadvantaged.

In its place Ukraine exported a limited amount of grain using ships that hugged the western coast of the Black Sea - through Romanian and Bulgarian territorial waters - to evade Russian attack. Ukraine has also been exporting an increasing amount of grain from Reni and Izmail, on the Danube river.

The Black Sea route was previously used as a humanitarian corridor, to allow passage for empty ships which had been trapped in Ukraine's ports since the start of the conflict.

However, earlier in November Ukrainian officials said a harbour pilot had been killed and four other people injured after a Russian missile hit a civilian ship that was supposed to transport iron ore to China as it was entering Odesa.

More than a year of fighting

Russia's invasion began with dozens of missile strikes on cities all over Ukraine before dawn on 24 February 2022.

Russian ground troops moved in quickly and within a few weeks were in control of large areas of Ukraine and had advanced to the suburbs of Kyiv.

Russian forces were bombarding Kharkiv, and they had taken territory in the east and south as far as Kherson, and surrounded the port city of Mariupol.

But they hit very strong Ukrainian resistance almost everywhere and faced serious logistical problems with poorly motivated Russian troops suffering shortages of food, water and ammunition.

Ukrainian forces were also quick to deploy Western supplied arms such as the Nlaw anti-tank system, which proved highly effective against the Russian advance.

By October, the picture had changed dramatically and having failed to take Kyiv, Russia withdrew completely from the north.

More than a year since the invasion, Ukraine is now hoping its latest counter-offensive can turn the war in its favour.

By David Brown, Bella Hurrell, Dominic Bailey, Mike Hills, Lucy Rodgers, Paul Sargeant, Alison Trowsdale, Tural Ahmedzade, Chris Clayton, Kady Wardell, Mark Bryson, Zoe Bartholomew, Sean Willmott, Sana Dionysiou, Joy Roxas, Gerry Fletcher, Jana Tauschinsk, Debie Loizou, Simon Martin and Prina Shah.

About these maps

To indicate which parts of Ukraine are under control by Russian troops we are using daily assessments published by the Institute for the Study of War with the American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project. To show key areas where advances are taking place we are also using updates from the UK Ministry of Defence and BBC research.

The situation in Ukraine is often fast moving and it is likely there will be times when there have been changes not reflected in the maps.

Copyright 2023 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.

Beta Terms By using the Beta Site, you agree that such use is at your own risk and you know that the Beta Site may include known or unknown bugs or errors, that we have no obligation to make this Beta Site available with or without charge for any period of time, nor to make it available at all, and that nothing in these Beta Terms or your use of the Beta Site creates any employment relationship between you and us. The Beta Site is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis and we make no warranty to you of any kind, express or implied.

In case of conflict between these Beta Terms and the BBC Terms of Use these Beta Terms shall prevail.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ukraine's counter-offensive may have achieved a breakthrough ahead of the expected harsh winter months.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Later this week, Russia will hold its presidential election, but no one is holding their breath about the outcome. Russia’s war in Ukraine has accelerated the process of ruthless consolidation of power in the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin’s regime, with a mixture of fear and confidence, is becoming more brazenly aggressive against any opposition ahead of the election, which will be held from March 15 to 17.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
AACC Library Databases: Off-Campus Login

# data[].attributes.body
Bailey, D. (n.d.). Dominic Bailey | BBC journalist | Muck Rack. Muck Rack. https://muckrack.com/dominic-bailey

Edwards, C., & Chernova, A. (2024, September 16). Putin orders Russia to boost size of army by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/16/europe/putin-russia-ukraine-troop-boost-intl/index.html

Glantz, M. (2024a, March 11). Mary Glantz, ph.D.. United States Institute of Peace. https://www.usip.org/people/mary-glantz-phd

Glantz, M. (2024b, March 12). Ukraine War takes a toll on Russia. United States Institute of Peace. https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/03/ukraine-war-takes-toll-russia

Jakes, L., & Schmitt, E. (2024, Aug 29). Russia is focused on own invasion, not ukraine's incursion: [foreign desk]. New York Times Retrieved from https://login.ezproxy.aacc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/russia-is-focused-on-own-invasion-not-ukraines/docview/3098046604/se-2

Lopez, T. (2024, February 24). Two years in, Russia’s war on Ukraine continues to pose threat to global security. U.S. Department of Defense. https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/article/3686148/

Lopez, T. (n.d.). C. Todd Lopez’s profile | business insider, color research & application, U.S. Army journalist | Muck Rack. Muck Rack. https://muckrack.com/c-todd-lopez

makuch, andrij. (2024, September 22). The Russian invasion of Ukraine. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/The-Russian-invasion-of-Ukraine

Team, the V. J. (2024, August 22). Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60506682

United States Institute of Peace. (n.d.). Muck Rack | for journalists and public relations. Muck Rack. https://muckrack.com/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Putin orders Russia to boost size of army by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million | CNN

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country’s military to increase its number of troops by 180,000, the third time he has expanded its ranks since launching his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Russian buildup and the Battle of Kyiv

Between October and November 2021, Russia began a massive buildup of troops and military equipment along its border with Ukraine. Over the following months, additional forces were dispatched to Belarus (ostensibly for joint exercises with Belarusian personnel), the Russian-backed separatist enclave of Transdniestria in Moldova, and Russian-occupied Crimea. By February 2022 Western defense analysts estimated that as many as 190,000 Russian troops were encircling Ukraine and warned that a Russian incursion was imminent. Putin dismissed these accusations and claimed that an accompanying Russian naval buildup in the Black Sea was a previously scheduled exercise. While Western leaders consulted with both Zelensky and Putin in an effort to stave off a Russian invasion that appeared inevitable, Putin issued demands that included de facto veto power over NATO expansion and the containment of NATO forces to countries that had been members prior to 1997. This would, in effect, remove the NATO security umbrella from eastern and southern Europe as well as the Baltic states. These proposals were flatly rejected.

On February 21, 2022, Putin responded by recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukrainian territory as "peacekeepers," and Russian military activity in the Donbas-ongoing since 2014 but consistently disavowed by the Kremlin-at last became overt. Western leaders, pledging solidarity with Ukraine, responded by levying a raft of sanctions against Russian financial institutions. In the early hours of February 24, Zelensky addressed the Russian people directly, delivering an impassioned plea for peace but vowing that Ukraine would defend itself. Later that day, at about 6:00 am Moscow time, Putin took to the airwaves to announce the beginning of a "special military operation." Within minutes explosions were heard in major cities across Ukraine, and air raid sirens began to sound in Kyiv. Around the world, leaders condemned the unprovoked attack and promised swift and severe sanctions against Russia. Zelensky declared martial law and called for a general mobilization of Ukraine's military-age population.

It seems clear that Putin's plan had been to seize Kyiv in a matter of days and to install a pro-Moscow government. In the early hours of the invasion, an elite Russian paratroop unit captured Hostomel Airport, just 6 miles (10 km) northwest of the Ukrainian capital, in an airborne assault. Russian troops in Belarus crossed the Ukrainian border and occupied the Chernobyl nuclear plant as part of a general advance on Kyiv along the west bank of the Dnieper River. Russian forces in Crimea pushed north and captured Kherson on March 2. Elsewhere, however, the Russian advance stalled in the face of a determined Ukrainian defense. An attempted Russian encirclement of Kharkiv failed, despite that city's close proximity (20 miles [32 km]) to the Russian border, and the thrust toward Kyiv collapsed, due to stiff Ukrainian resistance and obvious shortcomings in Russia's logistics capabilities.

The Ukrainian refugee crisis and Russian war crimes

Millions of Ukrainians fled the country as Russia indiscriminately targeted civilian populations with rockets and artillery strikes. On March 16 as many as 600 people were killed in the besieged city of Mariupol when a Russian air strike leveled the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theatre. It was widely known that the building was being used as the city's main bomb shelter, and the theatre's set designer had painted the word "CHILDREN" on the pavement outside in massive Cyrillic letters that were visible even in satellite imagery. By late March some four million Ukrainians had fled the fighting; this represented Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. The overwhelming majority would find safety in Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic.

As the war entered its second month, it was clear that the offensive against Kyiv had grossly miscarried. The Russian paratroopers at Hostomel had been isolated and subjected to furious Ukrainian artillery bombardment, and the Russian troops occupying the Kyiv suburbs of Irpin and Bucha were conducting a horrifying campaign of violence against the civilian populations of those cities. After the Russians were forced to withdraw from Irpin and Bucha, Ukrainian forces uncovered mass graves, bodies that showed clear signs of torture, and other evidence of war crimes. Elsewhere along the front, the Russians targeted cultural sites, hospitals, water treatment plants, and other civilian infrastructure in a brazen violation of the Geneva Conventions. Looting of civilian homes and businesses was also widespread in areas under Russian occupation.

Western aid, the sinking of the Moskva, and the fall of Mariupol

On paper, the Russian military appeared to have an overwhelming advantage in both personnel and matériel, but the West quickly responded to provide Ukraine with billions of dollars in military aid. Zelensky, often appearing in an olive drab T-shirt, appealed to governments and intergovernmental organizations around the world through video calls as he warned that a "new Iron Curtain" was descending on Europe. Ukraine's military performance was not solely dependent on foreign assistance, however. Many of those defending Ukraine had earned valuable combat experience while serving in the Donbas, where fighting against Russian proxies was ongoing since 2014. In addition, Ukraine's military underwent extensive reforms in the years since Russia illegally annexed Crimea, and defense spending increased dramatically during that time. When he took office, Zelensky had ordered an overhaul of Ukroboronprom, the scandal-plagued state-owned concern that controlled Ukraine's defense industry, and that restructuring led to renewed confidence in Ukroboronprom and ultimately resulted in strategic partnerships with international firms such as Lockheed Martin. The rapid advances made by Ukraine's military-industrial complex were perhaps most dramatically displayed on April 13 when the Moskva, a Russian guided missile cruiser and the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, was struck by a pair of Ukrainian-produced Neptune anti-ship missiles off the coast of Odessa. When the Moskva sank the following day, it provided an enormous morale boost for Ukraine and further undermined the perception of Russia as a "near-peer" adversary of the United States.

In May fighting intensified in the Donbas, and Ukraine launched a counteroffensive that pushed back the Russian troops that had been threatening Kharkiv. In the south, however, Mariupol finally surrendered to the Russians after a nearly three-month siege that had reduced the once-vibrant port city to ruins. The final holdouts-a mixed force of Ukrainian national guard units and marines-had occupied the massive Azovstal steel plant for more than a month, and the brutal fighting there led observers to recall the Battle of Stalingrad. Ukrainian officials estimated that at least 20,000 civilians had been killed in the city and more than 90 percent of Mariupol's structures had been damaged or destroyed during the siege.

A number of factors would dictate Russia's reliance on attrition warfare in the Donbas. As demonstrated in the failed Kyiv offensive, Russia could not count on its armoured units to successfully execute even the basic elements of a maneuver warfare campaign. They were overly reliant on roads, they were dependent on Russia's fragile logistics and supply system for fuel and ammunition, and even Russia's most advanced tanks proved vulnerable to Ukrainian anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) teams. Despite an overwhelming numerical advantage in aircraft, the Russian air force failed to establish air superiority in any major combat theatre. This meant that Russian armour was left vulnerable to Ukraine's formidable armada of unmanned aerial vehicles; these ran the gamut from consumer drones that had been modified to drop small aerial bombs to the formidable Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2. The near-total global embargo on advanced processors that was leveled on Russia also ensured that any computerized equipment lost could scarcely be replaced.

Putin's "special military operation" against Ukraine had seen the failure of Russia's main thrust toward Kyiv, the deaths of at least a dozen Russian generals, and the sinking of the Moskva, the largest ship to be lost to enemy action since the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was torpedoed during the Falkland Islands War in 1982. Russia had become the most heavily sanctioned country in history; it was isolated from the international banking system, and the EU, the U.S., the U.K., and Canada had all closed their airspace to Russian traffic. Ukraine, conversely, was embraced by the West as a developing democracy defending itself against the depredations of an autocratic neighbour. On June 23 Ukraine was granted candidate status, an important first step on the path to membership, in the EU. NATO, decried by some as irrelevant in the 21st century, found a renewed purpose and sense of solidarity in the wake of the Russian invasion. Finland and Sweden, two countries with a long history of neutrality, each signaled their intention to join the alliance shortly after the war began. On July 5 both countries signed accession protocols. Instead of shattering the alliance's will, Putin had, in effect, turned the Baltic Sea into a NATO lake.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ukraine - The Russian invasion of Ukraine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Between October and November 2021, Russia began a massive buildup of troops and military equipment along its border with Ukraine. Over the following months, additional forces were dispatched to Belarus (ostensibly for joint exercises with Belarusian personnel), the Russian-backed separatist enclave of Transdniestria in Moldova, and Russian-occupied Crimea.