Russia had denied it ad nauseam, but on February 24, 2022, the worst forecasts of the international community were fulfilled. The first explosions sound in Kyiv. Russia attacks Ukraine. The war has begun. Anti-aircraft alarms are heard again in Europe after decades of silence. Russian President Vladimir Putin avoids talking about war or invasion. It is a “special military operation,” he said.

Hundreds of Ukrainians die in the first days of the war. hospital basements either subway tunnels they become a makeshift bunker. The images of a war, seen like never before, at the minute and on mobile phones, hit Europeans and a wave of solidarity spreads to welcome the thousands of Ukrainians (the vast majority of them women and children) who are trying to leave the country.

The Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, an unknown to many becomes the protagonist. Comedian, dancer, actor… Zelensky’s past it causes you to be prejudged. However, since his arrival at the Ukrainian presidency, he had shown a clear intention to bring the country closer to Europe. In the first minutes of the war he took command and in the face of rumors of flight… “here I am”, he proclaimed, assuring that he would not abandon the Ukrainians.

Meanwhile, Russia attacks on several fronts. In the east to try to gain ground in the Donbas but also in the north, with access from Belarus. Putin marks among his first objectives the seizure of the capital, Kyivand other large cities far from pro-Russian controlled areas in the east, but Ukrainian forces hold out.

The international community begins to repudiate the Russian attack. The name of the Wagner Group, a mercenary firm related to the Kremlin, begins to sound. Putin insists on the threat of Ukraine to Russian national security and the Russian-speaking population.

Already in March the deficiencies of the Russian Armed Forces began to become evident, from aspects of coordination to logistics, going through equipment issues. What for Putin was a lightning action to recover Donbas is beginning to drag on.

War crimes: the first images of horror

And in April the images of the first great horrors come to light. Russian troops are forced to withdraw from Bucha, in the Kyiv region, and the international community discovers dozens of civilian corpses and torture sites.

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) opens an investigation for war crimes. Inside Russia, censorship becomes evident. The media cannot speak of an “invasion” and repression is growing against any individual or entity that strays from the Kremlin’s line of discourse.

On April 8, A missile hits a Kramatorsk train station and kill fifty civilians who tried to flee. The Russian Armed Forces are focused on the eastern and southern areas, in search of a corridor that allows the unification of the territories controlled by pro-Russian allies with the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014.

They launch the final offensive to take Mariupol, where thousands of civilians are supposed to have died. The war also spreads in the sea. An alleged Ukrainian attack sinks a flagship of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, in a symbolic blow to Russia’s alleged dominance in the field of warfare.

In May, Ukraine surrenders Mariupol after weeks of bombing and the siege on the Azovsta steel worksl, a place of underground refuge for hundreds of civilians since the beginning of the war and a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance.

In Russia, Putin is celebrating the anniversary of the Soviet victory over the Nazis while watching theoretically neutral countries such as Sweden and Finland formalize their requests to join NATO. Ukraine officially asks to join the European Union. In less than a month, Zelensky consolidates allied support and Ukraine receives the status of candidate country for the EU in record time.

Meanwhile, Russia makes military advances in eastern Ukraine and completes control of the Lugansk region, with the aim of continuing to gain ground in neighboring Donetsk. Moscow is also beginning to show its control over the gas market, with temporary supply shutdowns that put the rest of Europe on guard. And the international community begins to think about the energy threat in the face of winter.

Six months of war and a great counteroffensive

The war enters its sixth month and Ukraine launches its first major counteroffensive, with the Kherson region as the main stage. International concern is growing about the situation of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, considered the largest in Europe and in the vicinity of which there are recurrent fighting. The UN fears a nuclear accident.

In Crimea, a Russian air base on the peninsula suffers powerful explosions that give rise to all kinds of speculation. Satellite images show serious material damage to the facilities, allegedly attacked by the Ukrainian authorities. Russian giant Gazprom alleges maintenance reasons to completely cut Europe’s supply of gas as European governments scramble to find new sources and plan cost-saving measures to ensure a winter without cuts.

With the entry of the month of September, the Ukrainian forces consolidate the change in trend on the combat front with strategic advances in Kharkov and the seizure of towns such as Liman, in Donetsk. Zelensky also symbolically hoists the Ukrainian flag in the city of Izium, occupied for six months.

Russia’s reaction is quick. Putin calls the partial mobilization to reinforce the Armed Forces with some 300,000 new troops, which gives rise to the flight of thousands of people. More than a thousand people are arrested in Russia for participating in protests against this mobilization.

The Russian president is also trying to offset his defeats with fraudulent referendums in the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, without the recognition of Kyivv or governments allied with Ukraine. Following these consultations, Russia proclaims its sovereignty over these areas, despite not even controlling them in their entirety.

At the same time, the energy crisis is gaining weight. A series of explosions in subsea pipelines on Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 reduce gas supplies. All parties, including Russia, agree that it is sabotage, but to this day the authorship has not been confirmed.

The Crimean bridge and Putin’s revenge

The war advances and on October 8, just one day after Putin’s birthday, the bridge that connects Crimea with Russia, symbol of the 2014 annexation, partially blows up. Kyiv does not officially claim responsibility for the attack, although it does not hesitate to celebrate it.

As revenge, Putin orders massive attacks on civilian targets and infrastructure throughout Ukraine. While they prey on the population, Moscow insists that they only attack targets of military interest. In reality, precision weapons attacks are directed against residential buildings, houses, tourist sites (such as the Kyiv Glass Bridge), public parks and infrastructure, as well as power stations.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops continue to make progress. On November 11 they recapture the city of Kherson, the capital of the region of the same name, after Russia organized a massive evacuation unprecedented on its part since the start of the offensive. He moves thousands of people to the left bank of the Dnieper River as he struggles to deny defeat.

The fear of an international escalation of the conflict is triggered after the impact of a missile and the death of two people in Poland, NATO territory. Investigations attribute the projectile to Ukrainian defense systems, which were responding that day to an indiscriminate wave of Russian shelling.

Already in December, the combat front stagnates, without great advances or setbacks on the part of any of the sides in dispute. Winter has brought fewer daylight hours and freezing temperatures that make soldiers suffer, more if possible, at the front.

Zelenski redoubles the pressure on his international partners, from whom he asks for more and better weapons to avoid a new Russian attack. The United States confirms the shipment of Patriot missile systems and the North American country is the first destination chosen by Zelenski to travel abroad since the beginning of the invasion. The President of Ukraine meets with his counterpart Joe Biden and speaks before the United States Congress.

Close to the anniversary of the war, Russia acknowledges the death of 89 soldiers in a Ukrainian attack in the Donetsk region, in one of the deadliest incidents since the start of the conflict. However, Russian troops recover part of the initiative lost on the ground with intense fighting and advances in areas such as Soledar and Bakhmut.

Zelenski now demands tanks and achieves the commitment of countries theoretically reluctant to this aid such as Germany and the United States, to form a global coalition that commits more than a hundred armored cars.

February becomes a month of diplomatic struggle. Zelenski leaves the Ukraine again, this time to make stops in London, Paris and Brussels. In the Belgian capital he speaks before the European Parliament and participates in a meeting of heads of State and Government of the Twenty-seven, to whom he explicitly calls for more weapons. Kyiv asks its allies to study sending fighters, an option that has not yet been put on the table by any government. The NATO defense ministers limit themselves in a meeting in Brussels to specifying the supply of other types of equipment such as tanks. Spain announces that it will send six Leopards.

days of the anniversary, a historic visit takes place, that of Biden (February 20), by surprise and with great security measures. An act that lasts only a few hours but that conveys an image of unity: the US is with Ukraine and will be there for as long as necessary.

This same Tuesday, the scene was repeated with the visit of the president of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, to Kyiv and his meeting with Zelenski.

Movements that show that the war that was going to be “lightning” has become chronic. Now, the unknowns remain many. From the nuclear threat, to the position of China and the effects on the world economy. And all while it is feared that Russia could intensify its attacks with new indiscriminate bombardments.

What is no longer in doubt is that this war has caused the largest exodus in Europe since World War II. More than 8 million Ukrainians have fled their homes and the number of civilian deaths exceeds 8,000, mostly women.