The Thousandth Day of Russia's Attack on Ukraine; What Has Happened

A thousand days have passed since the beginning of Russia's extensive military invasion of Ukraine. The 'special military operation,' which was supposedly supposed to end 'within three days' with the establishment of a Kremlin-backed government in Kyiv, has turned into a protracted war that has left thousands of casualties and widespread destruction. As winter approaches, Russia has once again increased its airstrikes, imposing unbearable conditions on the citizens of Ukraine by extensively destroying the electricity production and transmission network. Approximately 20% of Ukraine's territory, including Crimea, which Russia occupied in 2014, has been captured by Russian forces, and in recent weeks, the advance of its army has accelerated. This advance has been accompanied by heavy casualties, but the Ukrainian army has also suffered significant losses. Military experts believe that the most important achievement of Ukrainian forces has been preventing the realization of the Kremlin's main goal of destroying Ukraine as an independent country. Ukraine has the support of its Western allies and has received billions of dollars in financial and military aid from the United States, the European Union, and other countries. However, many of Ukraine's expectations from its allies have not been met, and following Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election, Kyiv's concerns about a reduction in Washington's support, which has been Ukraine's most important military ally, have intensified. What is Zelensky's 'victory plan' and will it lead anywhere? The Ukrainian government emphasizes the restoration of territorial integrity within the framework of the country's international borders and considers the borders created by the front lines unacceptable. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on his Western allies to help create conditions to end the war in the new year. Prior to Russia's extensive military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, about 7% of Ukraine's territory, including the Crimean Peninsula and parts of Donbas, was under the control of Russia and its proxy forces. After a thousand days, about 27% of Ukraine's territory is under Russian occupation, and Russian forces are fighting to capture four Ukrainian provinces that Moscow claims have been 'annexed' to Russian territory. Currently, 98% of Luhansk province and 61% of Donetsk province in the east, 72% of Zaporizhia province in the southeast, 71% of Kherson province, and about 1% of Mykolaiv province in the south and about 2% of Kharkiv province in northern Ukraine are under Russian occupation. This region contains rich natural resources; 11% of oil fields, 20% of gas fields, 42% of metal mines, and 33% of rare earth mines in Ukraine have fallen into Russian hands. In contrast, parts of Kursk province in Russia are under the control of Ukrainian forces, and multiple targets in Russian territory, including areas more than a thousand kilometers from the border, have been exposed to Ukrainian drone attacks. In the latest development, the U.S. has allowed its long-range missiles to be used for attacks by Ukraine against targets in Russian territory. In response, Russian officials have increased their threats of nuclear war. Casualties among soldiers are not officially reported by their respective countries. About two months ago, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Western intelligence sources, that the Russian army had about one million killed and wounded in the war against Ukraine. This is while the former Soviet Union lost about 15,000 soldiers during a decade-long war in Afghanistan. The Russian section of the BBC and the publication 'Mediazona' have identified the names and complete details of over 70,000 Russian soldiers who have been killed in Ukraine over the past thousand days and believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. According to the Wall Street Journal, Ukrainian casualties include about 80,000 killed and 400,000 wounded; these figures have been denied by Ukrainian officials. A civil organization commemorates the names of 25,000 Ukrainian soldiers who have been killed during a thousand days of war and believes they have identified about 70% of the killed Ukrainian soldiers. According to the United Nations, more than 12,000 civilians have been killed and 27,000 injured in Ukraine; among them are nearly 3,000 children. The report adds that the actual casualty figures are much higher. According to the same report, since the beginning of the war, about 400 civilians have been killed and 1,100 injured in Russia. Russian officials say the number of civilian casualties in Russia exceeds 38,000. However, casualties within Russian territory are not solely due to Ukrainian attacks. The publication 'Insider' estimated that at least 39 bombs from Russian fighter jets have accidentally fallen on Russian territory this year. War refugees According to the United Nations, Russia's extensive military invasion has forced one-third of Ukrainian citizens to leave their homes. According to this report, Russia's military intervention in Ukraine before February 24, 2022, had already forced nearly one and a half million people to leave the occupied areas in Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, and after this date, the number of those fleeing from the occupied areas has reached 4.6 million; about one million of them are children. Additionally, more than six million people have left Ukraine, with about 5 million taking refuge in European countries and 500,000 in other countries. Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic have taken in the highest number of war refugees from Ukraine. The population of Ukraine has decreased by 8 million since the Russian invasion. UN documents indicate that about 1.2 million Ukrainian citizens are present in Russia and Belarus. The Red Cross and human rights organizations have reported on thousands of Ukrainians who have been detained in Russia or held in re-education camps. More than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia in violation of international laws. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against several Russian officials, including Vladimir Putin, for this crime, which Russia considers illegal. Russian military crimes in Ukraine Since the early days of Russia's war against Ukraine, Ukrainian prosecutors, with the help of their Western counterparts, have been collecting evidence of Russia's war crimes to prosecute Russian officials in the International Criminal Court or in a special court similar to the Nuremberg Trials against senior Nazi German officials. In total, more than 170,000 criminal cases are under investigation, with dozens of cases related to sexual violence. According to the United Nations, besides extensive evidence of sexual violence against civilians in occupied areas of Ukraine, 70% of Ukrainian soldiers who were captured by Russia have testified that they were tortured and raped. The intervention of Russia's allies in the war against Ukraine is also a subject of international investigations. Belarus, Iran, and North Korea are international supporters of the Russian army in this war. Russia attacks Ukraine from Belarusian territory, thousands of Iranian drones are used in nighttime attacks against critical infrastructure and cities in Ukraine, and North Korea is sending 'thousands' of its soldiers to fight against Ukraine while supplying massive amounts of missiles and ammunition to the Russian army. Damage to natural resources It is estimated that at least 3.5 million hectares of forest have been destroyed during the years of war. Due to airstrikes with bombs, missiles, and suicide drones, more than half of Ukraine's territory has been contaminated, and in some areas, the level of heavy metals in the soil is 25 times above the permissible limit. About 30% of Ukraine's territory is mined, and clearing it will take decades. The explosion of the Kakhovka dam has caused a major natural disaster in southern Ukraine. Environmental activists say about 750 plant species and 600 animal species that were protected in Ukraine are now at risk of extinction since the beginning of the war. Several national parks have been fundamentally destroyed during the years of war. Ukrainian officials estimate the environmental damage at over $60 billion. Additionally, there are concerns that the restoration of nature in many areas of Ukraine may not be possible even in the next 100 years. Destruction of civilian infrastructure and cultural facilities The United Nations has reported that since the beginning of the war, more than two thousand hospitals and medical clinics, about four thousand educational institutions (including schools, kindergartens, and universities), and at least 450 cultural-historical units (churches, museums, libraries, cinema and theater buildings, statues, and historical buildings) in Ukraine have been affected by Russian attacks, and the reconstruction of many of them is not possible. The Kyiv School of Economics has separately reported that Russian attacks have affected 2,109 historical-cultural buildings in Ukraine, of which 328 have been completely destroyed.