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10 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 FEBRUARY 2023 FEBRUARY 2022 Russian forces attacked Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, and its second-largest city, Kharkiv, in an attempt to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelensky's government. MARCH 2022 Russian forces, attempting to secure Ukraine's coast, took the city of Kherson and its wider province. APRIL 2022 Russian missile strike on a train station in Kramatorsk, a city in Donetsk, killed more than 50 civilians. The attack came at the start of a Russian offensive, ordered by President Vladimir V. Putin, to seize all of Donbas. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola vists Ukraine. MAY 2022 Last Ukrainian fighters surrendered to Russian forces in Mariupol, a port city and industrial hub on the Sea of Azov, after weeks of bombardment that killed thousands of civilians, The fighting ended with a siege at the Azovstal steel plant, which had become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. JUNE 2022 Ukrainian forces recaptured Snake Island off the coast of the city of Odesa. JULY 2022 The last city under Ukrainian control in Luhansk, Lysychansk, fell to Russia after weeks of fighting. AUGUST 2022 Ukraine waged a counteroffensive in the Kherson region. Kyiv's forces deployed Western-supplied weapons systems, such as HIMARS, to target Russian military infrastructure. Ukraine also attacked a Russian air base in Crimea. SEPTEMBER 2022 In a rapid offensive, Ukraine retook much of the northeastern Kharkiv region and seized the initiative in the war. Ukraine later recaptured the city of Lyman in Donetsk Province. OCTOBER 2022 Explosion damaged the Kerch Strait Bridge linking Crimea with Russia. Two days later, Russia attacked Ukrainian towns and cities from land, sea and air, the start of a campaign to cripple the country's energy infrastructure. Russia also annexed four Ukrainian regions — Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. NOVEMBER 2022 Russian forces withdrew from the city of Kherson to the eastern side of the Dnipro River, a significant victory for Ukraine. DECEMBER 2022 Ukraine used drones to attack military bases hundreds of miles inside Russia. On the battlefield, soldiers endured grim conditions as winter took hold. JANUARY 2023 Ukraine said its forces had killed or wounded hundreds of Russian fighters in a missile strike in Donetsk region. Moscow said 89 soldiers had died. FEBRUARY 2023 Russian forces sustained heavy losses during weeks of fighting around the city of Vuhledar, southwest of Bakhmut, raising questions about Moscow's ability to sustain an offensive expected in Donbas region. US President Joe Biden visits Ukraine. EXACTLY a year ago on Fri- day, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-frontal assault on several of Ukraine's main cities. Many expected a quick Rus- sian victory resulting in the imposition of a puppet gov- ernment in Kiev which would have brought Ukraine back in Putin's sphere of influence. It was the heroic fight-back and resilience of ordinary Ukrainians led by the charis- matic President Volodymyr Zelensky in the early days of the war, which stopped this from happening. One year later, it is clear that the attempt to overthrow Ukraine's legitimate govern- ment has failed. Not just in the military sense – though Rus- sia's failure in that department is clearly evident – but also, in the very objectives that the in- vasion had set out to achieve. Vita Boronylo, 33, was living in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev when the shelling started, and has now moved to Malta to es- cape the harsh reality of war. She recalled the confusion and panic which reigned dur- ing the early days of the inva- sion. "The war for me started on 24 February when mum called me at 4am telling me bombs were being dropped on Kiev, and the Russians were bombing the country. It was touch and go, we packed the backpacks, got our documents and started moving," she said. Vita and her sister were trying to make their way to the town of Pryluky, which lies in the eastern region of Kiev. She explained how the scenes were straight out of a post-apocalyptic movie. "Traf- fic was everywhere, shops were empty, people running, and lines for petrol were tens of cars long." Pryluky, Vita's hometown, where all her family live, is a buffer zone, and was imposed with a mandatory curfew from 6pm to 6am. In what resembles one of our grandparents' stories about World War 2, she explained how they were instructed to turn off the lights, as Russians would be aiming at them, even though they were civilians. "It's a radical change you have to go through. I went from walking my dog and going to War in Ukraine Timeline of events 'It seems like the show, but Ukrainians Vita Boronylo, a Ukrainian refugee, tells KARL AZZOPARDI Malta has been welcoming to her but it is still not home