Exactly 100 days ago, Russian tanks entered the territory of Ukraine. For Russia, a “special military operation “, and for the West, the invasion of Ukraine turned into a bloody war in which thousands of people died, millions left their homes, and the infrastructure of cities in the east was destroyed.
The war in Ukraine began on February 24 with the entry of Russian troops from three sides. In the first phase of the war, the Russian army targeted targets across the country, from east to west, and Russian tanks also advanced towards the largest cities, Kiev and Kharkiv. Russia claimed that only military facilities were targeted, and Ukraine claimed that civilian facilities were also targeted, even residential buildings in the suburbs of Kiev.
In the first phase of the war, Russia’s goal seemed to be to conquer all of Ukraine, but in mid-April, they said they were changing strategy and aimed at liberating Donbass, the eastern region of the self-proclaimed Donetsk (DNR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR).
The battle in Donbas is still going on, and these are the key battles fought during both phases of the war.
Seizure of Kherson
The first major city to fall into the hands of the Russian army was the Black Sea port of Kherson. Already in the first days of March, the Russian army entered the city without much resistance and has been under its control ever since.
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Local authorities appointed by Russian troops are announcing a possible referendum on merging Russia, similar to the referendum held in Crimea in March 2014. Also, the Kherson authorities announced that this territory will be transferred to the Russian ruble, as well as that it will use the Russian area code and the Russian Internet.
The siege and fall of Mariupol
Simultaneously with the fall of Kherson, on March 2, the siege of Mariupol , the most important Ukrainian port on the Sea of Azov, began. The city, for which fierce battles were fought in 2014 as well, was the target of fierce shelling on Sundays, but also of mutual accusations between the two sides that they are preventing humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of the population.
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The situation quickly turned into a humanitarian catastrophe. Most of the city was left without electricity, gas, water, but also medicine, and food. On the second week of the siege, the maternity hospital was targeted, and a few days later, a theater with almost 1,300 people hiding in its basements.
The exact number of victims is still unknown, although some Ukrainian officials claimed that between 300 and 500 people died. Russia, on the other hand, claims that it did not target the theater and that it was the work of Ukrainian militants and the Azov battalion .
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Ukrainian officials say that almost 90 percent of the city’s infrastructure was destroyed, and that about 100,000 people remained in the city, out of almost half a million who lived before the war.
Siege of the Azovstal steel plant
The definitive fall of Mariupol came with the fall of the Azovstal steel plant , a large complex on the shores of the Sea of Azov that has a whole series of complicated bunkers and tunnels made underground so that it can withstand a nuclear attack.
Azovstal was the last stronghold of Ukrainian marines, members of the Azov battalion, but also hundreds of civilians hiding in tunnels. After a series of attacks, on April 21, Vladimir Putin ordered the steel plant to be blocked so that “not a fly flies.”
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In the following days, civilians surrendered first and transferred to other parts of Ukraine, followed by fighters. The last fighters came out of the bunker on May 20, after which they were taken to the territory of the DPR . Their fate is unknown, but they are likely to be tried, possibly as part of a new tribunal announced by DPR officials. The threatened punishment is life imprisonment.
DPR leader Denis Pushilin announced that the complex, which was owned by the richest Ukrainian Rinat Ahmemtov before the war, would be demolished and that “other projects” were planned for the area.
The sinking of the ship “Moskva”
After exactly 50 days of the war, Ukraine inflicted one of the strongest blows on Russia – the ship “Moskva” was sunk . Russia initially did not admit that the ship was sunk, but claimed that there was an explosion in the ammunition depot.
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Two days later, they admitted that the ship sank, but it is still not clear how many victims there were. Ukraine claims that the leading ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was hit by their Neptune missiles.
The Moskva ship began to tilt at 01.14 pm Lithuanian time (GMT +3) and at 02.00 am Turkish ship evacuated 54 people from it.
How Turkish ship evacuates people from Russian warship “Moskva”
Battle of North Donetsk
In the second phase of the war, a key battle is being fought for Severodonetsk, a city whose conquest would take control of the Luhansk region of Donbas and strengthen its position in the east, which is presented as a key goal – “complete liberation of Donbass “.
The Russian military controls between 70 and 80 percent of the city, according to both sides, and the part of the city controlled by the Ukrainian army is the industrial zone.
