One year since the start of the Russian invasion: The story of Ukranian Resilience

Ukraine, particularly the Kyiv region.

February 24, 2023 marks exactly one year since the start of the Russian fullscale invasion of Ukraine and nine years since the start of Russo-Ukrainian war. According to the U.N. Human Rights Offce report, at least 8,000 civilians died as a result of the fullscale war, and more than 13,000 were injured. The report recognised, however, that the real numbers are much higher as little information can be collected from the occupied regions or the areas with heavy fghting.

On February 21, 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin offcially declared the independence of its enclaves in the east of Ukraine: parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions that have been occupied by Russian-backed separatists since 2014. Three days later, Putin offcially announced the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian missiles struck several Ukrainian cities, and Russian troops crossed Ukrainian borders with a goal of installing a puppet government in Kyiv.

Fierce Ukrainian resistance, however, diminished the prospects of Russia’s blitz victory. By March, Russia was only able to take control of about 30 percent of Ukrainian territory, including just one major city — Kherson.

In April, Ukraine won its frst signifcant victory: Russian forces were forced to withdraw from the northern part of

In June, Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports prevented Ukrainian grain from being exported to other countries and raised the concerns of a global food crisis. Four months later, Putin announced the annexation of the four Ukrainian regions, following illegal annexation “referendums” held there by Russian proxies with much evidence of voting fraud and voting coercion. Meanwhile, the successful Ukrainian counter-offensive

Nataliia Kulieshova ’23 visited Mariupol just a few months before the siege. She said, “I have a lot of family and friends who were in Mariupol back then, and it was so scary not knowing what happened to them, not being able to connect with them for months and just imagining the worst possible scenarios. And now this gorgeous city that was one of my favorite cities in Ukraine is completely ruined. And there’re so many massacres and war crimes that you cannot even imagine, and it's terrifying.” one of her recent interviews, Lvova-Belova announced that she “adopted” a child from Mariupol. The real story of the child and her family is unknown.

Since February, Russia has launched about 5000 missile strikes, 3500 air strikes, and 1000 drone attacks on Ukraine. Trying to escape the Russian invasion, 8 million Ukrainians fed the country and 5.9 million became internally displaced.

Despite the brutal missile strikes on civilians and frequent blackouts caused by Russian attacks on infrastructure, more than 90 percent of Ukrainians said in a recent survey that Ukraine must continue to fght against Russia. After the massacres in Kyiv and Kharkiv regions and Russian terror bombing, many Ukrainians can not al- low for major concessions to be made. There is also growing skepticism about peace negotiations considering Russia’s history of using such deals to grow in power and invade again. We had a lot of traumatic events, but that's exactly the reason to keep on fghting,” Kulieshova said. “If we give up right now, Russia … will keep [committing] all of the crimes that it did to us centuries ago. I feel like giving up will not just be wrong, but it also will be unfair to the people who had to lose their loved ones in this war and to people who had to witness all of the events themselves, and to people who are still being terrorized in the occupied territories.” Russian full-scale invasion became a turning point for many Ukrainians and united the country as never before. As Zelenskyi said in his speech on February 24, 2023, “Instead of a white fag, [Ukrainians] chose the blue-yellow one.” in September and November resulted in the liberation of Kharkiv and Kherson regions. In total, 54 percent of the Ukrainian territories occupied since last February have been liberated.

The story of Mariupol, a strategically important city in the south-east of Ukraine at the Azov sea, exemplifes the brutality of Russian invasion. Russian forces dropped from 50 to 100 bombs on the city every day and cut off the residents' access to water, food, heat, and mobile connection. During the four months of the siege, the constant bombardment by the Russian army destroyed up to 90 percent of the city’s buildings.

More than 65,000 war crimes committed by Russians have been documented since February, including countless deliberate attacks on civilians and energy infrastructure and many cases of murders, detentions, and tortures of civilians in the occupied territories.

According to the latest Confict Reseratory report, at least 6,000 Ukrainian children have been forcefully deported to Russia or Russian-controlled territories, cut off from the communication with their families and subjected to pro-Russian re-education. Russia was found to create a network of such re-education camps, from which Ukrainian children are then adopted by Russian families. Maria Lvova-Belova, Putin's commissioner for the protection of children's rights, is one of the Russian offcials at the center of the scheme. In