On February 24 2022, the world awoke to news that Russian tanks had rolled into Ukraine from the east and north. More than a year later, tens of thousands of casualties have been reported on both sides and millions of refugees from Ukraine have been recorded across Europe.

Latest on Ukraine’s counteroffensive

Ukraine stepped up attacks against arms depots and other targets deep inside Russian-occupied territory on Sunday, supporting a counteroffensive that has made modest gains against heavily fortified Russian frontline positions. Ukrainian forces claim to have liberated several villages, including a number in the Donetsk region, since the counteroffensive began this month.

Counteroffensive: Ukraine strikes Russian ammunition depot deep behind frontline in southern Kherson

Source: Brady Africk, an open-source intelligence analyst, FT research, Institute for the Study of War, AEI's Critical Threats Project • Updated 8am GMT Jun 19 • Ukrainian counteroffensives before May 1 2023 are not shown / *These regions and Crimea are not recognised by the international community, Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 © FT

Latest on the national picture

A massive overnight kamikaze drone strike by Russia’s invading forces hit the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Tuesday in an attack that also heavily targeted the capital, Kyiv.

Ukraine’s air force said 32 of 35 strike drones were intercepted in the nationwide attack.

Critical infrastructure targeted in Russian strikes on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv

Source: Institute for the Study of War, AEI's Critical Threats Project, FT research • Updated 8am GMT Jun 20 • Ukrainian counteroffensives before May 1 2023 are not shown / *These regions and Crimea are not recognised by the international community, Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 © FT

Other maps and charts from the war

June 2023: Destruction of Kakhovka dam

Following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine on June 6, flood waters devastated towns and villages downstream, with dozens of people perishing in the disaster amid patchy evacuation efforts in Russian-controlled territories. The flood also narrowed Ukraine’s attack options in its counteroffensive, which got under way in early June.

The Kakhovka dam spanning the Dnipro river in southern Ukraine was breached on June 6 causing immediate flooding

More than 120 square kilometres of land was flooded in the first few hours

By early afternoon on June 7 520 sq km of land had been flooded, an area one-third the size of London. Within that, 87 sq km of urban areas had been affected

One of the hardest-hit towns was Russian-occupied Oleshky, south of the Dnipro river. Where many residents took to their roofs to escape the flood

May 2023: Russian fortifications

Ukraine’s months-long preparation for its summer counteroffensive to try to wrest back occupied territory allowed Russia to fortify its positions along the almost 1,000km front line.

Satellite images reviewed by the Financial Times and analysed by military experts revealed a multi-layered Russian network of anti-tank ditches, mazes of trenches, concrete “dragon’s teeth” barricades, steel “hedgehog” obstacles, spools of razor wire and minefields.

In preparation for Ukraine’s looming counteroffensive, Russia has spent months significantly fortifying the almost 1,000km frontline across the roughly 100,000 sq km of Ukrainian territory it currently occupies.

Russia’s most heavily fortified frontline area is in southern Zaporizhzhia province, where Ukraine is expected to try to break through and sever the “land bridge” connecting Russian territory with occupied Crimea. There, Russian forces have created a multi-layered defence composed of anti-tank ditches, zig-zag trenches, concrete “dragon’s teeth” barricades, steel “hedgehog” obstacles, razor wire and minefields.

Russia has paid special attention to the Berdyansk airfield near the Sea of Azov. The airfield is known to be a hub for Russian military aircraft.

The northern border of Crimea, which Russia has occupied since 2014, has also been heavily fortified with a combination of trenches and tank traps. The defences stretch from Armyansk in the north to Dzhankoi in the north-west. Both are crucial transport hubs and gateways to the peninsula.

The towns of Tokmak, Polohy, Bilmak and Ocheretuvate, which sit at important road junctions, have been completely encircled by defences.

Russia constructed layers of “dragon’s teeth”, trenches and other obstacles across an extensive swath of occupied territory near the eastern cities of Severodonetsk, Lysychansk and Popasna, after capturing them in May and June 2022. A Ukrainian breakthrough there would face significant challenges.

Russia also erected a strong defensive line along the border of eastern Luhansk province to the north, where Ukrainian forces are thought to want to break through somewhere around the town of Kupyansk.

May 2023: Battle for Bakhmut

On May 21, Vladimir Putin hailed his first major victory since the early days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine claiming that Russian forces had captured the eastern city of Bakhmut, despite Kyiv insisting the battle “was not over”.

The Russian president said the paramilitary group Wagner had seized the Ukrainian city with help from Russia’s armed forces after months of bloody fighting that had caused more than 100,000 casualties and reduced the city to ruins.

The battle for control of Bakhmut

Source: Institute for the Study of War, AEI's Critical Threats Project • Updated 8am GMT May 21

Earlier in the year, satellite images from the Vuhledar area, south of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, revealed the extent of damage in areas that had suffered intense artillery shelling.

The impact of shelling: Petrivka, eastern Ukraine

Satellite photos taken Aug 24 2022 and Feb 10 2023

Source: Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies

September-November 2022: Ukraine retakes Kherson

A September counteroffensive led to Ukraine liberating 3,000 sq km of territory in just six days — its biggest victory since it pushed Russian troops back from Kyiv in March.

Ukraine’s forces continued to push east, capturing the transport hub of Lyman, near the north-eastern edge of the Donetsk province, which it wrestled from Russian control on October 1.

The hard-fought victory came after nearly three weeks of battle and set the stage for a Ukrainian advance towards Svatove, a logistics centre for Russia after its troops lost the Kharkiv region in the lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Ukrainian forces advanced into Kherson on November 11 after Russia said its forces had completed their withdrawal from the southern city, sealing one of the biggest setbacks to Putin’s invasion.

Kyiv’s progress and Moscow’s chaotic retreat across the Dnipro river under Ukrainian artillery fire meant Russia surrendered the only provincial capital it had captured in the war, as well as ceding strategic positions.

March 2022: Russia fails to capture Kyiv

Source: Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies

The refugee crisis

The number of Ukrainians fleeing the conflict has made it one of the largest refugee crises in modern history.