Fighting has been going on in Ukraine since Russia launched a large-scale invasion in February 2022. Russian forces have made small advances in recent months, but now Ukrainian forces have launched a counteroffensive by crossing the Russian border in the northeast.
Below you will find a summary of recent key events and the situation on the ground in Ukraine.
Ukraine sends units to Russia
In early August, Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack across the border, advancing up to 30 kilometers into Russia’s Kursk region.
Nearly 200,000 people were evacuated by the Russian government from border districts, including Belovsky and Krasnaya Yaruga. Vladimir Putin condemned the Ukrainian offensive as a “major provocation”.
After a week, Ukraine’s top commander claimed to have 1,000 square kilometers of Russian territory under his control, but analysts suggested the real size was smaller. In addition, the Kursk and Belgorod regions had both declared states of emergency.
According to the acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, 28 communities had fallen into the hands of Ukrainian troops, but the Ukrainian president later put the number at 74.
The counteroffensive is partly seen as an attempt to Forcing Russia to redeploy units from eastern Ukraine and to relieve pressure on beleaguered Ukrainian defenses there. All this was partly an attempt to increase Ukraine’s chances of a peace settlement.
Russian invasion north of Kharkov
In early May 2024, Russian troops crossed the international border north of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, capturing several villages and displacing thousands of civilians.
Russia’s main offensive had long been focused on the eastern Donetsk region, but this was one of the most significant ground attacks since the beginning of the war and further stretched Ukraine’s defense line.
The Russian attack came at the end of a four-month period in which the US did not supply weapons to Ukraine due to a stalemate in the US Congress.
The problem was finally resolved in late April, when the US approved a $61 billion aid package to supply missiles, artillery and air defense systems to the Ukrainian military.
Ultimately, the Ukrainian forces held out and although the city of Kharkov was repeatedly attacked by glider bombs fired by Russian fighter planes, the city remains out of range of Russian artillery.
Russia pushes ahead in the east
The invasion north of Kharkov took place some distance from the main front line in the east, where Russia has continued its offensive operations since October 2023 and has been advancing slowly but steadily.
Eastern Ukraine has been a disputed territory since 2014, when Russian-backed fighters seized large parts of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Russia’s biggest advantage is manpower and the country has shown its willingness to throw soldiers at Ukrainian positions to gain a few meters every now and then.
According to Western officials, about 1,200 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded every day in May and June, the highest number since the war began.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has lowered the minimum age for conscription from 27 to 25, hoping to relieve exhausted troops on the front lines.
Russia achieved a notable success in the town of Avdiivka, where Ukrainian troops withdrew in February after months of fighting.
It marked the biggest change to the 1,000-kilometer-long front line since Russian forces captured the nearby town of Bachmut in May 2023.
If a Ukrainian counteroffensive had been successful, Avdiivka could have been a gateway for Ukraine to reach the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk. But that opportunity has now been lost.
Almost the entire pre-war population of Avdiivka, which numbered more than 30,000 people, has left, and the town itself is almost completely destroyed.
Russian forces now control what remains and continue to advance west, targeting the Ukrainian-held towns of Pokrovsk and further north, Khasiv Yar, which sits on a hill about 10km west of Bakhmut.
The areas around Bachmut remain a flashpoint and have seen some of the heaviest fighting of the war.
Although Ukraine gained some ground in surrounding areas over the summer, Russian troops have now advanced around the city.
Two and a half years of fighting
The Russian invasion began with dozens of rocket attacks on cities across Ukraine before dawn on February 24, 2022.
Russian ground forces advanced rapidly and within weeks had taken control of large parts of Ukraine, including the outskirts of Kiev.
Russian troops bombarded Kharkov and captured territories to the east and south as far as Kherson, and surrounded the port city of Mariupol.
But they encountered strong Ukrainian resistance almost everywhere and faced serious logistical problems, as Russian troops were poorly motivated and suffered from shortages of food, water and ammunition.
The Ukrainian armed forces were also quick to deploy Western-supplied weapons, such as the Nlaw anti-tank system, which proved highly effective against the Russian advance.
By October 2022, the picture had changed dramatically, and after failing to capture Kiev, Russia withdrew completely from the north. The following month, Ukrainian forces recaptured the southern city of Kherson.
Since then, the fighting has been mainly in eastern Ukraine, with Russian forces slowly gaining ground over many months while in which at least 50,000 troops were lost – and probably many more.
By Dominic Bailey, Mike Hills, Paul Sargeant, Tural Ahmedzade, Chris Clayton, Kady Wardell, Mark Bryson, Sana Dionysiou, Gerry Fletcher, Kate Gaynor, Filipa Silverio and Erwan Rivault
About these cards
To indicate which parts of Ukraine are under the control of Russian forces, we use daily assessments provided by the Institute for the Study of War with the Critical Threats Project of the American Enterprise InstituteTo show key areas where progress is being made, we also use updates from the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence and BBC research.
The situation in Ukraine often changes rapidly and sometimes changes will occur that are not reflected on the maps.
