February 24th
Russia attacks Ukraine
The escalation of tension in Eastern Europe has just boiled over. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced this morning “a special military operation” and the attack on Ukraine began minutes later. The objective, according to the Russian president, is to demilitarize the country, although the attack against the former Soviet republic increasingly resembles a large-scale invasion.
The Russian Defense Ministry claims to be using “high-precision weapons” to disable military infrastructure.
Russian troops have crossed the border at several points, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs has confirmed. His government says it is facing “a large-scale attack from multiple directions.” Explosions were reported in at least ten regions in the east and south of the country early on Thursday.
Pictures of the first attack
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Smoke and flames after an attack on a military facility in KyivUkraine.
Damaged array of radars and other equipment at a military installation near MariupolUkraine.
Ukrainian soldiers in an armored vehicle in the region of Kharkiv.
Military vehicles cross the border between Crimea and Ukraine in a picture taken by security cameras.
Smoke and flames after an attack on a military facility in KyivUkraine.
Damaged array of radars and other equipment at a military installation near MariupolUkraine.
Ukrainian soldiers in an armored vehicle in the region of Kharkiv.
Military vehicles cross the border between Crimea and Ukraine in a picture taken by security cameras.
Smoke and flames after an attack on a military facility in KyivUkraine.
Damaged array of radars and other equipment at a military installation near MariupolUkraine.
Ukrainian soldiers in an armored vehicle in the region of Kharkiv.
Military vehicles cross the border between Crimea and Ukraine in a picture taken by security cameras.
Smoke and flames after an attack on a military facility in KyivUkraine.
Damaged array of radars and other equipment at a military installation near MariupolUkraine.
Ukrainian soldiers in an armored vehicle in the region of Kharkiv.
Military vehicles cross the border between Crimea and Ukraine in a picture taken by security cameras.
The first explosions were heard minutes after six on Thursday morning. Attacks have been recorded in a dozen Ukrainian cities. In Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, to the east; in Kharkov, to the northeast, just 30 kilometers from the Russian border; and even in Kiev, the capital. There have also been explosions in the separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, whose independence the Russian government recognized last Monday.
Information by: Luis Sevillano, Mariano Zafra, Kiko Llaneras, Jose A. Álvarez, Montse Hidalgo, and Daniel Castresana (Video).
February 22
Russia sends troops to Ukraine’s Donbas region
Putin has ordered sending troops to Donbas after signing the recognition of independence of Lugansk and Donetsk
area under control
of the separatists
pro-Russian
Putin has ordered sending troops to Donbas after signing the recognition of independence of Luhansk and Donetsk
area under control
of the separatists
pro-Russian
area under control
of the separatists
pro-Russian
Putin has ordered sending troops to Donbas after signing the recognition of independence of Luhansk and Donetsk
area under control
of the separatists
pro-Russian
Putin has ordered sending troops to Donbas after signing the recognition of independence of Luhansk and Donetsk
Putin consummated last Monday night the recognition of the self-proclaimed popular republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, as the Duma had requested days before, and sent troops to the zone under separatist control of the Donbas region.
The war in eastern Ukraine has lasted eight years. In March 2014, after a referendum that the international community considered illegal, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and offered military and economic support to the Donbas separatists. A month later, they proclaimed their independence from Ukraine, which precipitated the start of the conflict that has since left more than 14,000 dead.
The conflict has left Donbas divided into two areas separated by the front line: the area controlled by Russian-backed separatists, on the border with that country, and the area that remains under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the west. . The separatists claim all the territory of Donetsk and Lugansk, but only control a third – some 10,400 square kilometers according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Deployment of troops and battle groups in the Russian town of Soloti, near the Donbas region. February 13th.
Rifle battalion convoy moving northeast of Soloti garrison. February 20th.
New detachment located east of Valuyki, in Russia. February 20th.
Small detachment deployed along a line of trees northwest of Belgorod. February 20th.
Satellite photos: Maxar Technologies © 2022.
Deployment of troops and battle groups in the Russian town of Soloti, near the Donbas region. February 13th.
Rifle battalion convoy moving northeast of Soloti garrison. February 20th.
New detachment located east of Valuyki, in Russia. February 20th.
Small detachment deployed along a line of trees northwest of Belgorod. February 20th.
Satellite photos: Maxar Technologies © 2022.
Deployment of troops and battle groups in the Russian town of Soloti, near the Donbas region
February 13th
Rifle battalion convoy on the move northeast of Soloti garrison
February 20th
New detachment located east of Valuyki, in Russia
February 20th
Small
detachment deployed along a line of trees northwest of Belgorod
February 20th
Satellite photos: Maxar Technologies © 2022.
Information by: Trinidad Deiros, Mariano Zafra, Luis Sevillano, Montse Hidalgo
February 20th
The buildup of Russian troops in Donbas
On February 21, Putin recognizes the independence of the provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk and orders the sending of troops to the region.
Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014. Donbas is a Ukrainian region where Russian-backed separatists control a third of the territory.
Without number
of troops
known
On February 21, Putin recognizes the independence of the provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk and orders the sending of troops to the region.
Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014. Donbas is a Ukrainian region where Russian-backed separatists control a third of the territory.
Without number
of troops
known
On February 21, Putin recognizes the independence of the provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk and orders the sending of troops to the region.
Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014. Donbas is a Ukrainian region where Russian-backed separatists control a third of the territory.
Without number
of troops
known
Without number
of troops
known
Updated:
February 20th
Russia has maintained a military presence in the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria since the 1990s.
On February 21, Putin recognizes the independence of the provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk and orders the sending of troops to the region.
Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014. Donbas is a Ukrainian region where Russian-backed separatists control a third of the territory.
Russia began in November to build up troops and weapons along its border with Ukraine. The consulting firm Rochan Consulting, which has been monitoring the deployment, estimated on January 27 that more than 100,000 Russian soldiers were already deployed near the border. The latest moves by Russia and the beginning of what Rochan describes as “a new phase”, in which units are going from congregating at assembly points to acting in more dispersed maneuver zones, now makes it difficult to follow and quantify the detachments in the land. According to “Western sources” cited by the British BBC, two thirds of these Russian troops are now less than 50 kilometers from the border with Ukrainian territory.
In addition to the soldiers deployed along the Ukrainian border, Moscow maintains 30,000 soldiers, heavy weapons, and combat planes and helicopters in Belarus.
The US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Michael Carpenter, calculated on Friday that between the Russian troops installed along the Ukrainian border, those that Moscow maintains in Crimea and those deployed in Belarus, the Kremlin may have between 169,000 and 190,000 soldiers on the ground in and around Ukraine. To this important deployment, we must add the around 2,000 soldiers who, according to data from the thinktank Polish Warsaw Institute, Moscow maintains in Transnistria, a region whose Russian-language and cultural population declared independence from Moldova in 1990.
Information by: Trinidad Deiros, Mariano Zafra, Luis Sevillano
January 29
invasion options
Analysts believe that the most plausible scenarios of an alleged Russian invasion of Ukraine are three:
1. South Option. Russian troops would try to conquer the strip of Ukrainian territory bordering the Black Sea. That strip would go from the Donbas region to Transnistria, in Moldova, passing through the Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. This possibility would ensure the water supply to Crimea, which Kiev cut off eight years ago, and would leave Ukraine landlocked.
two. East Option. Russian soldiers could penetrate the separatist areas of Donbas, without advancing further into Ukraine, or they could try to conquer all the Ukrainian territory east of the Dnieper River, which divides the country into two halves. This military advance would include the taking of Kiev with the possible collaboration of the Russian troops stationed in Belarus, whose border is 80 kilometers from the capital.
3. full option. An invasion of all of Ukraine is the scenario that experts consider most unlikely due to the difficulty of controlling a territory of more than 600,000 square kilometers and a population of 44 million people, according to the World Bank. The opposition of the citizens is a factor that can be even more decisive than the purely military resistance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in clear inferiority to the Russian Army. In addition to the abysmal difference in terms of weapons, Ukraine has only 209,000 active soldiers compared to 900,000 in the Russian Army, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Information by: Andrea Rizzi, Mariano Zafra
Sources: Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Maxar Technologies, Rochan Consulting.
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