War in Ukraine Why did Russia invade and whats happening now BBC Newsround

Perhaps most significant is the activity around Avdiivka, a strategically important town on the front line in eastern Ukraine. Russia has also made advances north east of Kupiansk, north of Bakhmut, and south west of Avdiivka, according to the latest ISW assessment. The village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region could offer a similar stepping stone but Russian forces are reported to have made some advances in the area. Ukraine first announced it had made a breakthrough in mid-November - the river had separated Ukrainian and Russian forces since Moscow's troops withdrew from Kherson a year ago. A source familiar with the situation said the drone fell at about 7am local time but had not affected fuel output.

Even so, rather than taking place in different public locations around the city, as usual, the forum was convened in an underground theatre on the hilltop campus of Ukrainian Catholic University, a ten-minute drive from the city center. There, for three days, panelists addressed topics related to Ukraine, Russia, war, and culture. Earlier today, a Russian official said air defences had thwarted a drone attack on the Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in the city of Yaroslavl. Even so, the messages made for some jarring moments for some of those present, featuring as they often did ultra-patriotic and sometimes militaristic declarations. In a panel I moderated, the Ukrainian historian and author Olena Stiazhkina began her remarks by expressing her gratitude to the Ukrainian armed forces for their defense of the homeland. “We’re all living on credit given to us by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” she said.

Explosions heard across the country

However in Russian media there has been no mention of the thousands of arrested protesters, or of the many more who took to the streets in support of Ukraine. Last week the Kremlin sent out letters to ten publications, warning them not to use the words "invasion," "attack" or "declaration of war" in their coverage. Ukraine's armed forces have been fighting against the Russian military for a year now, and countries around the the world have been supporting Ukraine by supplying weapons and armed vehicles, such as tanks, to defend themselves.

We may be far from a large-scale antiwar movement, but the seeds have been sown. And once they flower into outright defiance, it could spell trouble for Mr. Putin. Mr. Kovalev is the investigations editor at Meduza, an independent Russian news outlet. Russia was unnerved when an uprising in 2014 replaced Ukraine’s Russia-friendly president with an unequivocally Western-facing government. He called Fox News to say that he didn't believe that Putin "wanted to do this, initially".

• As expected, Vladimir Putin has been officially registered as a candidate for the Russian presidential election this March.









• Protesters came out in several cities shouting "no to war!" and even "Putin to the trenches!".









• In recent days, US President Joe Biden made a significant visit to the capital Kyiv, showing his full support for Ukraine and President Zelensky.









• Many were so badly beaten and abused in detention that this acted as a major deterrent to further protest.

"In the short term," says Brig Ben Barry from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, "a successful Russian seizure of Kyiv would be a military and political success with strategic impact. They have been offered the opportunity to live in other countries like Germany, France, Poland and the UK, with a chance of safety, food, healthcare and education for young people. Since the invasion, the price of everyday items across the world has increased. This is because many countries are no longer using gas supplied by Russia, so there is greater demand and a higher cost for gas supplied from other places. Countries around Europe along with the United States, have also put significant limits on Russian trade and supplies, (called sanctions) with the aim of forcing Putin to stop his actions.

Explosion at Kyiv TV tower leave five dead

The gloves are off, the pretences dropped, diplomacy is dead - at least for now. Ukraine is under full-scale Russian invasion and is fighting for its very survival. It is not clear exactly how many refugees have travelled to the UK, but recent government figures show around 160,000 Ukrainian refugees have officially settled here.

Nato defence chiefs have re-examined his lengthy speech of July 2021 and concluded they urgently need to reinforce Nato's eastern borders lest Putin is tempted to make a move on countries like Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. After eight years of fighting a Russian-backed breakaway insurgency in the east of their country they are now watching it being shelled, bombed and rocketed by their giant nuclear-armed neighbour. The invasion plan broadly consists of a three-pronged line of attack, from the north, east and south, using artillery and missile strikes to soften resistance before following up with infantry and tanks. Putin would ideally like to see the Zelensky government quickly capitulate and surrender, to be replaced by a Moscow-leaning puppet government.

A bus service has started up connecting the city to the local cemetery where growing numbers of soldiers killed in Ukraine are being buried. In Pskov, near the Estonian and Latvian borders, the atmosphere is gloomy and everyone pretends the war has nothing to do with them, I am told. If they are troubled by Russia bombing a city where many have friends and relatives, then they're trying not to show it. But surrounded by reminders of Russia's often relentlessly violent past I felt war was now inevitable. My daily walks were my way of saying goodbye to a world, and perhaps even a country, that could never be the same again.

• "Certainly, the time we are living in is enormously dangerous. And the killing of three US troops in Jordan has increased the likelihood for the crisis in the Middle East deepening considerably.









• In the weeks leading up to Russia's invasion, I would walk for hours in the central Moscow district of Zamoskvorechiye, where I had lived and worked in the BBC office for seven years.









• Mr Szijarto will be in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak.









• By October 2022, the picture had changed dramatically and having failed to take Kyiv, Russia withdrew completely from the north.

A U.S. official told CBS News on Wednesday that between 5,000 and 6,000 Russian troops may already have been killed since fighting began in Ukraine on February 24. "You keep referring to it as a military operation, but this is an invasion, this is a war," Tyab challenged Popov. "Our government tells us that [the] military operation is going pretty well," he said.

• It is not clear exactly how many refugees have travelled to the UK, but recent government figures show around 160,000 Ukrainian refugees have officially settled here.









• "A frank and constructive dialogue is expected to improve relations between states," the Ukrainian president's office said on its official channel on the Telegram messaging app alongside a photo of Mr Szijjarto, Mr Kuleba and Mr Yermak.









• "What this means, in short, is that the presumption against the use of force - which was the basis for the post-WWII world order, for anything other than defence - has been lost.









• "You keep referring to it as a military operation, but this is an invasion, this is a war," Tyab challenged Popov.









• NPR's A Martinez talks to Julia Ioffe, founding partner of the media company Puck, about Russia's crack down on free speech which has led many media outlets to leave the country or go underground.

Lithuania will consider cases individually, but the prime minister clarified that it was "not the duty of other countries to save Russians fleeing mobilisation". Protesters came out in several cities shouting "no to war!" and even "Putin to the trenches!". More than a thousand people were detained and some were then served with call-up papers at the police station. Among the most prominent outlets are the Meduza and Mediazona websites - both have been blocked in Russia and both are labelled as "foreign agents" by the Russian government.

His work focuses on the Premier League, LaLiga, MLS, Liga MX and the global game. Speaking to CNBC Timothy Ash, an emerging markets strategist, said that Putin had “spectacularly miscalculated” the response in Russia to war with Ukraine. "It's to send in non-uniformed troops to stir up trouble, part of 'sub-threshold warfare'. I'm worried it will spill over into the Baltics." If Russia's invasion turns into a long-term occupation of Ukraine then it is conceivable that Western nations may well support a Ukrainian insurgency, just as the US supported the Afghan mujahideen in the 1980s.

• There are, however, Russian independent media who still defy government restrictions.









• This week's call-up has confirmed that belief, as videos of men saying tearful goodbyes to their families pop up all over the country.









• "China likewise seeks reunification with Taiwan, and Iran, in its region, wants its 'place in the sun'.









• The move has raised concerns among Russian opposition activists already abroad.

To show key areas where advances are taking place we are also using updates from the UK Ministry of Defence and BBC research. By October 2022, the picture had changed dramatically and having failed to take Kyiv, Russia withdrew completely from the north. Russia's invasion began with dozens of missile strikes on cities all over Ukraine before dawn on 24 February 2022. It notes the building gives Ukraine a "localised defensive advantage" and says Russian forces will probably suffer significant losses if they attempt to assault the facility.