KYIV, Ukraine, Jan  5, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine
on February 24, sparking the worst conflict in Europe in decades.
       Thousands of civilians have been killed in the war, which has been marked
by multiple setbacks for Russian forces in the face of an epic fightback by
Ukraine.
       Here is a timeline of the main developments:
       
       - February 2022: invasion -
    
       
       Russian President Vladimir Putin announces a "special military operation"
in Ukraine on February 24.
       He says this is to protect the Russian-speaking, self-declared separatist
republics of Lugansk and Donetsk in the east of Ukraine, whose independence he
has just recognised.
       He says he wants to "de-Nazify" Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, and
demands a guarantee it will never join the NATO military alliance.
       A full-scale invasion starts, with missile strikes on several Ukrainian
cities.
       Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stays in the capital Kyiv to lead
the resistance.
       The West imposes unprecedented sanctions on Russia. The European Union and
United States send weapons to Ukraine. The aid pledged by Washington rises into
the billions as the months pass.
       
       - March: advances in south but Kyiv holds -
    
       
       Russian troops attack Ukraine's south coast, seizing the city of Kherson,
close to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
       Russian forces also attempt to surround Kyiv and take Ukraine's second city
Kharkiv in the northeast but meet fierce resistance and major logistical
difficulties.
       A month into the fighting, Russia withdraws from the Kyiv area and the
north to focus on the eastern industrial Donbas region (Lugansk and Donetsk),
partly held by separatists, along with the south.
       
       - April: war crimes revealed -
              
       In early April, scores of corpses of murdered civilians are discovered in
Kyiv suburbs and northern towns that Russian forces had occupied.
       The discoveries spark an international outcry.
       
       - May: Mariupol falls -

       
       On May 21, Russia announces the fall of the strategic southeastern port
city of Mariupol, which had been relentlessly bombed since the start of the war.
       Ukrainian troops, who had held out for weeks at a steelworks in the city,
surrender.
       Sweden and Finland request membership of NATO, fearing they could be future
targets of Russian aggression.
       
       - June: Donbas battle rages -
       
       In June, Russia takes the Donbas city of Severodonetsk after one of the
bloodiest battles of the war, followed soon after by the neighbouring city of
Lysychansk.
       Ukraine pleads for more heavy weapons from the West.
       
       - July: grain unblocked, gas supplies cut -
    
       
       On July 22, Kyiv and Moscow sign a deal to resume grain exports from
Ukraine, in a bid to relieve a food crisis aggravated by Russia's blockade of
the country's ports.
       Russian gas giant Gazprom slashes its supply to Europe through the Nord
Stream pipeline, fuelling fears of gas shortages in Europe.
       
       - August: nuclear fears -
    
       
       Ukraine and Russia blame each other for shelling around the
Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and Kyiv launches a major
offensive to retake Kherson.
       
       - September: annexation -
       
       Ukraine retakes hundreds of towns and villages in a lightning
counter-offensive around Kharkiv.
       On September 21, Putin launches a partial draft of 300,000 reservists,
sparking an exodus of young Russian men of military age to neighbouring
countries.
       Between September 23 and 27, Kremlin-backed authorities hold hasty
referendums in the Moscow-held Ukrainian regions of Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson
and Zaporizhzhia on joining Russia.
       The votes, in which the Kremlin claims victory, are dismissed by Kyiv and
the West as a sham.
       On September 30, Putin formally annexes the four regions.
       
       - October: energy infrastructure pounded -

       
       On October 8, Ukrainians celebrate after an explosion causes major damage
to a bridge linking Crimea to the Russian mainland -- a symbol of Moscow's
annexation of the peninsula.
       Putin blames Ukrainian secret services for the attack.
       Russian forces retaliate with a barrage of strikes on energy infrastructure
in Kyiv and other cities, leaving millions without power in what becomes its
new modus operandi throughout the winter.
       
       - November: retreat from Kherson -
       
       On November 9, Moscow orders its troops to retreat from Kherson in the face
of advancing Ukrainian forces, marking a stunning defeat in one of the regions
it annexed.
       
       - December: Zelensky goes to Washington -
       On December 22, Zelensky visits Washington on his first overseas trip since
the war began. He keeps on his trademark fatigues for a meeting with President
Joe Biden and a historic address to Congress.
       
       - January 2023: bloody New Year, ceasefire -
    
       Russia suffers its biggest single loss of life since the invasion began in
an attack on a temporary base in the eastern town of Makiivka on January 1.
Moscow says 89 soldiers were killed but Ukraine's military says nearly 400 lost
their lives in the attack which leads to rare displays of public grief in
Russia.
       On January 5, Putin orders a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine on Orthodox
Christmas on January 6-7. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak
rejects the move as "hypocrisy" and "propaganda."