Russia-Ukraine war: 10 events that shaped the first 100 days of battle
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reaches the 100-day mark, The Post looks back at the defining moments of Europe’s biggest war in eight decades:
1. February 24 – Invasion begins with bombardment of Kyiv and other major cities
Moments after Russian President Vladimir Putin took to state TV to declare a “special military operation” to “denazify” Ukraine — a nation with a democratically elected Jewish president — Russian forces began pummeling Kyiv and other major cities from land, sea and air. Troops attacking via neighboring Belarus seized the doomed Chernobyl nuclear plant and tried to take Hostomel airport on the outskirts of Kyiv. Ukrainian forces repulsed the latter assault — the first sign that all was not going according to Moscow’s plan.
2. February 24 – “Russian warship, go f—k yourself.”
In the opening hours of the war, a group of Ukrainian marines defending a small Black Sea fortification known as Snake Island became folk heroes after telling off the Russian guided missile cruiser Moskva when it demanded their surrender. “Russian warship, go f—k yourself” became a rallying cry for Ukraine’s supporters around the world. While initial reports indicated that all Snake Island’s defenders were killed in the ensuing bombardment, some were later confirmed to have been take prisoner — including the soldier who made the remark, who received a medal for his fine phrasing.
3. March 2 – Kherson falls, first large city to come under Russian occupation
Kherson, a city just northwest of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, was the first major population center to fall to the invaders. “We had no weapons and were not aggressive,” Mayor Igor Kolykhaiev said after the city’s surrender. “I made no promises to [the Russians]. … I just asked [them] not to shoot people.” Kherson remained the only major Ukrainian city under Russian control for more than two months.
4. March 16 – Russian forces bomb theater used as shelter in Mariupol
A Russian airstrike hit the Donetsk Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol, which was being used as a civilian shelter. The building was targeted despite bearing the legend “Children” in large Russian letters visible from the air. At least 300 civilians were killed. The attack came a week after a Russian bomb stuck the maternity ward of Mariupol’s Hospital No. 3, wounding 17 people and killing at least one expectant mother. Russia claimed both incidents were staged “false-flag” operations.
5. April 2 – Ukrainian forces uncover atrocities in Bucha as Russians retreat from Kyiv
As the Russian drive toward Kyiv ended in full-scale retreat, pursuing Ukrainian forces made a series of grisly discoveries in the capital’s northern and western suburbs: Streets littered with the bodies of murdered civilians, and hastily-dug mass graves containing bodies shot at close range. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the atrocities “genocide.” As the Kremlin announced its intention to re-focus its forces on the industrial Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials called for civilians there to evacuate westward.
6. April 14 – Russian Black Sea Flagship Moskva sunk by Ukrainian missile
Weeks after being shown up by the defenders of Snake Island, the Moskva — the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet — sank after being struck by a Ukrainian costal defense missile. The loss was an embarrassment to the Kremlin, which denied the ship was targeted in battle and claimed the massive cruiser was lost due to an unexplained fire amid stormy seas. The sinking marked Russia’s first loss of a flagship in 117 years.
7. April 18 – Russia steps up assault on Donbas
After retreating from Kyiv, licking wounds and refitting their equipment, Russian forces began a major offensive in the Donbas region, where fighting had simmered since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. Russian forces started pushing forward in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts — which make up the Donbas — as well as the Kharkiv oblast.
8. May 16 – Ukrainian counterattacks push Russia back to border near Kharkiv
After a series of successful counterattacks in the suburbs of Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second largest city — Kyiv’s forces pushed Russian artillery out of range of the city and one Ukrainian unit made it to the Russian border. The series of victories momentarily took the pressure off of battered Kharkiv, and also threatened Russian supply lines to the Donbas.
After months of near-constant bombardment, with its people cut off from power, water, or reliable sources of food and information, the decimated city of Mariupol fell when the last defenders of the Azov Regiment surrendered from their redoubt at the Azovstal steelworks. With the remains of Mariupol under Russian control, the Kremlin’s forces on the Crimean peninsula were able to establish contact with their counterparts in the Donbas region.
10. June 2 – Zelensky says 20% of Ukraine occupied
In a speech to lawmakers in Luxembourg, Zelensky estimated that some 20% of Ukraine — an area the size of New York state — had been occupied by Russia. “The Russian army has already destroyed almost the entire Donbas,” he said of the eastern industrial heartland. Ukrainian forces were continuing to fight along a 600-mile front that curved from the shipbuilding city of Mykolaiv in the south to Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, in the northeast, as Ukraine tried to hold out for precision artillery equipment from the US and other Western allies.
