It is the night between 23 and 24 February 2022 when the Russian president, Vladimir Putin , gives the order to invade Ukraine .
At 5:05 local time the anti-aircraft sirens and the din of the first bombs dropped by the Russian air force wake up the citizens, the troops of Moscow start the invasion. War has come to Europe .
However, what should have been born as a short-term operation, a blitz of troops to conquer Kiev, turns into a bloody trench warfare , which does not spare the civilian population, leaving behind pain and rubble and the humanitarian drama of thousands of displaced people . Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gets substantial military aid from Western nations and NATO, while Russia is subjected to numerous sanctions. However, they don't seem to convince the Kremlin to change its strategy.
The bill in human lives is also very heavy for Putin , who with difficulty manages to hide from public opinion a bankruptcy budget both on the military and on the political level.
Let's see, in detail, the main stages of the twelve months of conflict .
February 2022, the invasion begins
It was 21 February 12 months ago when President Vladimir Putin announced the recognition of the independence from Ukraine of the two secessionist pro-Russian regions of Donbass . The news comes after a referendum considered a farce by Western nations . Three days later, Russia launches the invasion with a speech by the Russian leader to the nation in which Putin speaks of the need to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine . The first explosions hit Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa and Donbass. Russian forces enter from the Kharkiv region, Belarus and Crimea, which was annexed in 2014.
And while the world is wondering about the evolution of the conflict, the Russian army points towards the Zaporizhzhia plant, clearly evoking the nuclear threat for the first time.
The siege of Mariupol
The ordeal of the city of Mariupol opens in March, where half a million people live with a port, overlooking the Sea of Azov, considered strategic for military reasons. The battle destroys the city and those trapped live in hell, which lasted until the end of May, without food or water. A theater with 1,200 refugees inside is hit by a missile , and at least 600 civilians will be killed . Bombs also on the hospital: the scenes of the seriously injured pregnant women who leave the structure destroyed by the missiles went around the world.
The horror of Bucha
Between the end of March and the beginning of April, with the progressive withdrawal of Russian troops from some of the besieged territories, numerous corpses of civilians, even buried in mass graves, were discovered in Bucha , a city not far from Kiev. The discovery arouses indignation throughout the world , but the Kremlin denies any wrongdoing and speaks of a "staging" by the Ukrainian government. Zelensky speaks of " war crimes " which he believes "will be recognized as genocide". More mass graves will later be discovered in other places in Ukraine.
The siege of the Azovstal factory and the request for NATO membership of Ukraine and Finland
On April 21, Putin claimed the conquest of Mariupol while two thousand Ukrainian soldiers barricaded themselves in the Azovstal factory, together with a thousand civilians . On May 3, Russian soldiers launch a powerful attack, just in the days in which Zelensky and the Prime Minister of Finland announce their willingness to join NATO, opening a question that will also involve various international diplomacies.
The question of NATO's expansion to the east provokes reactions from Turkey . The nation led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan expresses its reservations, accusing Helsinki in particular of having hosted some members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (Pkk), considered by Ankara to be of terrorist origin. Sweden, meanwhile, suspects Turkey of having bankrolled the Kurdish organization.
The siege of the Azovstal steel plant will end in late May, with the surrender of the fighters and their capture by Russian forces.
Ukraine and Moldova are candidates to join Europe
In June , European leaders reached an agreement to grant Ukraine and Moldova the status of candidate nations for EU membership . The announcement comes from the President of the European Council Charles Michel, who speaks of a " historic moment ". On 29 June NATO also invited Sweden and Finland to join the alliance.
Referendums in the occupied territories and annexations
In September, Russia organizes referendums in the occupied regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia : citizens are asked if they want to be annexed to the Russian Federation. A new consultation defined as a "farce" by President Zelensky and by Western nations, many will be talking about citizens voting at gunpoint. The victory of the yeses is overwhelming, and Punti announces the annexation.
Ukraine regains ground and recaptures Kherson
During the autumn months, however, it will be the Ukrainian army that will regain ground , also thanks to the support of international aid. In this sense, the resumption of control of the western region of Kherson is emblematic. In October, an explosion partially destroys the Crimean bridge, a key and symbolic infrastructure linking Russia to the peninsula annexed in 2014. Putin immediately accuses Kiev of being responsible for the attack, which he defines as a terrorist act. The bridge had been used since the beginning of the conflict to transport military equipment of the Moscow army to combat zones in Ukraine. Russia's reaction will be very harsh, with an incessant rain of bombs on the Ukraine .
The case of the missiles that fell in Poland
On 15 November the case of the two missiles that fell on the territory of Poland , on the border with Ukraine, which caused the death of two people, opens. For many hours it was thought it could be a mistake by the Russians , but the picture will actually be different: Warsaw explains it should be S-300 anti-aircraft missiles launched by Ukraine and ended up on Polish territory by mistake.
Zelensky's visit to Washington and the death of the Ukrainian interior minister
If the year ends with Zelensky's visit to Washington, by Biden, to recount the horrors of a year of fighting and receive new support from the American people, in January the terrible data of the conflict are released: in almost a year of war there would be 180,000 Russians dead and 100,000 Ukrainians .
On 18 January the drama within the drama : the Minister of the Interior of Ukraine, Denis Monastyrsky, dies in a helicopter crash in Brovary, near Kiev . Nine were traveling on the vehicle, including his deputy Yevhen Yenin and the State Secretary of the Interior Ministry, Yuri Lubkovich.
The sending of heavy weapons and Giorgia Meloni to Kiev
Then the question arises of sending heavy weapons from the West to Ukraine , with Germany and the USA first holding back and then deciding to support Zelensky's request . Italy also confirms full support for the Ukraine cause and the new shipment of weapons, even with the visits , just two days ago, first of Biden and then of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Kiev.
(Unioneonline/vl)
