On February 24, 2022, at 3:40 a.m., a Russian tank column invaded Ukraine on the territory of the Luhansk region. Shortly before 05:00 Ukrainian time (UTC+2), Putin announced that he had decided to launch a military operation in eastern Ukraine. A few minutes after the declaration of war, Russia launched cruise and ballistic missiles at airfields, military headquarters and warehouses in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lutsk, Dnipro, Vasylkiv. There were explosions in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa and Donbas

On March 1, Russian troops shelled Okhtyrka, destroying a military unit, and many Ukrainian soldiers died. Shelling of Kharkiv continued. A storm in the Black Sea prevented the landing of Russian troops in the Odesa and Mykolaiv region. The first exchange of prisoners in this war took place in Krasnopil. The evacuation of civilians from Volnovakha in Donetsk region began. Russian troops began to physically destroy Ukrainian telecommunications, fired at a TV tower in Kyiv, which led to a temporary stoppage of TV channels (and radio broadcasting).

On April 1-2, Ukrainian troops liberated the entire territory of Kyiv region. Russian troops continued their rocket attacks on the Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Myrhorod, Shepetivka, Balaklia, Kharkiv and Pavlograd districts, and cut off the gas pipeline near Severodonetsk[183]. In the future, the enemy's main efforts were focused on strengthening positions in the Tavry and Yuzhno-Buz directions, and the shelling of Kharkiv continued[184]. In a week, the ZSU was completely liberated, after Kyiv region, Zhytomyr region, Chernihiv region and Sumy region[185]. The restoration of infrastructure and the reconstruction of logistics chains to start the economy of these regions[186] have begun. Foreign diplomats evacuated before the start of the invasion began to return to Ukraine