Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev in the latest interview said Russia’s activities in Ukraine was a special operation, not a war, as the Russian military’s goals were limited to Ukrainian military facilities and equipment.
“The campaign mainly involved the use of high-precision weapons. Military facilities are being destroyed,” Medvedev said. “The Russian military is trying to minimize the threat to civilian facilities, targeting only the Ukrainian armed forces. That’s why. We call this a special military operation.”
Here are some key events in the Russia-Ukraine conflict so far:
February 24th: Russia kicked off its military campaign against Ukraine in the biggest conflict in a European country since World War II. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians fled.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the operation was conducted to “demilitarize, de-fascist Ukraine”.
Ukrainians flee from Kharkiv on February 24. Photo: Reuters
February 25th: Ukrainian forces deal with Russian forces in the north, east and south. Artillery hit targets in Kiev and its suburbs.
March 1st: A U.S. official said the miles-long Russian convoy heading toward Kiev was experiencing logistical problems.
Russia attacked a TV tower in Kiev, increasing its firepower against Kharkiv in the northeast and other cities.
 Ukrainian forces in Kiev. Photo: Reuters |
March 2nd: Russian forces began besieging the port city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine. The city is important to Moscow’s efforts to connect the eastern Donbass region with Crimea, a peninsula on the Black Sea that annexed Russia in 2014.
Russian troops entered Kherson – the first major city that Ukraine lost control of.
By this time, about 1 million people have fled Ukraine, according to figures from the United Nations refugee agency.
March 4th: Russian forces control Europe’s largest Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) rejected Ukraine’s call for a no-fly zone, saying it would escalate the conflict.
March 8th: Civilians evacuated from the northeastern city of Sumy through the first humanitarian corridor that Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement on.
By this time, 2 million people have left Ukraine.
March 9th: Ukraine accuses Russia of attacking a maternity hospital in Mariupol. Russia denies the allegations, saying that the hospital building is in fact a gathering place for Ukrainian troops.
March 13: Russia expanded its campaign to western Ukraine, launching missiles at a base near the Ukraine-Poland border (which is a NATO member state).
March 16: Ukraine accuses Russia of bombing the Mariupol theater, where hundreds of civilians were sheltering. Moscow denies the allegation.
March 25th: Moscow signaled a shift in focus on gaining military advantage in eastern Ukraine, while Ukrainian forces pushed for the recapture of towns outside Kiev.
March 30th: By this time, more than 4 million people have left Ukraine
April 3rd: Ukraine accuses Russia of being behind the discovery of hundreds of bodies in the town of Bucha near Kiev. The Kremlin denied responsibility and said the incident was staged.
 The Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo plane, the largest plane in the world, was destroyed at an airport in Hostomel (Kiev). Photo taken on 3/4. Photo: Reuters |
April 8th: Ukraine accuses Russia of launching a missile attack on a train station in Kramatorsk. Russia denies the allegation.
April 14: The flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet – Moscow – sinks after catching fire. Ukraine says the Russian warship was hit by a missile, but Russia insists that the cause of the sinking was an explosion in an ammunition depot.
April 21st: Russian President Putin declared Mariupol “liberated” after nearly two months of siege, but thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and the Azov Battalion are still entrenched inside the Azovstal steel plant.
April 25-26: Moldova’s breakaway Transdniestria region recorded several explosions, and blamed neighboring Ukraine. Meanwhile, Kiev accused Moscow of orchestrating the attacks to widen the conflict.
April 28: Kiev is hit by two rockets while United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is on a visit.
The Kremlin accuses Ukraine of attacking Russian areas near the border.
May 1st: About 100 Ukrainian civilians were evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant.
May 9th: Russian military parades to celebrate Victory Day. President Putin delivered a keynote speech, but did not draw any conclusions about the military operation in Ukraine and provided no clues as to how long the conflict would last.
 A Ukrainian soldier fires a mortar at an unspecified location in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on May 9. Photo: Reuters |
May 10: Ukraine recaptures villages in the North and Northeast of Kharkiv in a counter-offensive.
May 12th: By this time, more than 6 million people have left Ukraine.
May 14th: Ukrainian forces launch a counterattack near the Russian-controlled town of Izium.
May 18: Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO after witnessing the conflict in Ukraine.
May 20: Russia announced that the last Ukrainian fighters at the Azovstal steel plant (Mariupol) had surrendered.
Hours earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Ukrainian military had told the forces at the Azovstal plant that they could go out to save their lives.
 Ukrainian soldiers surrender at the Azovstal factory. Photo: Reuters |
May 21-22: Russia launched an offensive in Luhansk – one of the 2 provinces in the Donbass, focusing on 2 cities of Sloviansk and Sievierodonetsk.
May 29: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the liberation of Donbass was an “unconditional priority” for Moscow, while Russian forces appeared close to capturing the entire Luhansk region.
May 31st: Local officials say it is no longer possible to evacuate civilians trapped in Sievierodonetsk, where Ukrainian forces are still holding out, as much of the city is under Russian control.
June 1st: Russia criticized the US decision to supply Ukraine with advanced missile systems, warning that the conflict could escalate and increase the risk of direct confrontation between Moscow and Washington.
June 2nd: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West to provide more weapons to gain advantage in the conflict.
June 3rd: Ukraine says it has no plans to use missile systems received from the US to attack facilities in Russia.
In 100 days, Russia has failed to achieve its initial goals of taking control of Kiev, but is achieving tactical success in the Donbass, the British Ministry of Defense said.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: Soha.vn – Read the original article here
