A month ago, on February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin launched the Russian army into Ukraine with the aim of "demilitarizing" and "denazifying" the country.

The objective was a rapid invasion of its neighbours, but the Russian advance has since slowed markedly and the tanks are beginning to get bogged down in the “raspoutitsa”, the thawing of the land.

Cities under siege, civilians under shelter or on the run, a maternity hospital bombed by the Russian army in Mariupol and many victims, here is a first assessment in pictures after a month of war in Ukraine.


Directed by:

Olivier JUSZCZAK

  • On February 24, 2022, President Vladimir Putin launched a "special military operation" on Ukraine.

  • And thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing.

  • The first bombardments are on military targets.

  • But very quickly, cities and residential areas are also affected.

  • No precise assessment is available.

  • Civilians use basements, cellars or the kyiv metro to take shelter from bombs.

  • About 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes.

  • Of which around a third went abroad, mainly to Poland, according to the UN.

  • A facility housing a pediatric hospital and a maternity ward was hit by Russian bombardment on Wednesday, March 9.

    Three people, including a child, are killed.

  • Mariupol, strategically located between Crimea (south) and the separatist territory of Donetsk (east), has been under a rain of Russian bombs for weeks.

  • “Nearly 100,000 people in inhuman conditions” are trapped in the ruins of Mariupol, “under total siege, without food, without water, without medicine, under constant bombardment”, alerted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

  • More than 2,000 civilians are said to have died in Mariupol, besieged and shelled for several days, according to local authorities.

  • Kharkiv (northeast), the second city of the country, is surrounded by Russian forces on several sides and on the main axes.

  • On the 28th day of the Russian invasion, the armies of Moscow seem to be making no progress despite massive and destructive bombardments.

    The Ukrainians launch counter-offensive operations.

  • The losses of the Ukrainian army amount to "about 1,300" soldiers, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on March 12.

  • At least 925 civilians have been killed in Ukraine, including 75 children, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which stresses that the real tolls are probably much higher.

  • Moscow announced on March 2 its one and only toll (498 soldiers killed).

    Ukraine claims that the Russian army has lost "about 12,000 men".

  • American intelligence sources quoted by the

    New York Times

    recently estimated that more than 7,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in three weeks.

  • More than 3.5 million people have fled Ukraine and the fighting sparked by the invading Russian army, according to the UN count released on Tuesday.

  • "In the worst case we will die, but we will never surrender", exclaimed the mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, on Tuesday before the Council of Europe as Russian troops tried to encircle his city.

  • The city of Kherson remains the only major city completely conquered by the forces of Moscow, which “are still trying to encircle Mykolaiv with the ambition of advancing west towards Odessa”, estimates the British Ministry of Defense.

  • “Russian forces are likely moving toward a prolonged bombardment of Ukrainian cities due to the failure of their initial campaign to encircle kyiv and other major cities,” said the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

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