Where the war in Ukraine goes next

Russia attacked from Belarus, Russia and Crimea at once, aiming at Kyiv. Its northern columns stalled and withdrew by early April, while it held large areas in the east and south.

Russian forces encircled the Azov port of Mariupol and levelled much of it. The last defenders held out in the Azovstal steel works.

Ukraine broke through thin Russian lines east of Kharkiv and raced to the Oskil river. Izium and then Lyman fell back into Ukrainian hands.

Ukraine ground down Russian forces on the right bank of the Dnipro by cutting their bridges. Russia answered with its first mass missile strikes on Ukraine's power grid.

The Wagner group threw tens of thousands of fighters, many of them convicts, at Bakhmut for ten months. Ukraine defended the ruined town to bleed Russian forces.

Ukraine attacked Russia's prepared lines in Zaporizhzhia with Western armour and ran into deep minefields. It freed a string of villages up to Robotyne but never reached the second line.

Russia massed over 120,000 troops against the fortified town on Donetsk's edge. Ukraine, short of shells, pulled out after four months.

Ukraine crossed into Russia's Kursk oblast and took Sudzha, the first ground offensive into Russia of the war. Russia, later helped by North Korean troops, pushed it back over seven months.

Ukraine's SBU smuggled 117 small drones deep into Russia in trucks and launched them at five bomber bases at once. It was the largest single blow to Russia's long-range bomber force.

After Avdiivka Russia drove west for the road and rail hub of Pokrovsk, taking Kurakhove, Vuhledar and Velyka Novosilka on the way. It took a year and a half and the heaviest losses of the war.

Russia's ground gains slowed to a crawl after it lost Starlink in February, and Ukraine retook ground near Pokrovsk and Lyman. The air war grew on both sides: Russia shifted to jet drones against cities and trains, Ukraine hit refineries, ports and Moscow.