International

No End In Sight To Ukraine War As Conflict Enters Third Year

There appears to be no end in sight to the Ukraine War as the conflict entered its third year on Saturd✱ay. On February 24, 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine began at the orders of President Vladimir Putin. Since then, the conflict has killed hundreds of thousands, devastated entire cities in Ukraine, and changed the post-World War II security architecture of Europe. While Putin hoped to capture Ukrainian capital Kyiv and replace Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy within weeks, the Ukrainian defence foiled Russian plans and surprised the world. Two years later, the Ukraine conflicܫt has become a grinding war of attrition.

No End In Sight To Ukraine War As Conflict Enters Third Year
Ukraine Russia War Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

In its first offensive, the Russian military reached the outskirts of Ukraine that it occupied for weeks before leaving the region to focus war efforts on eastern Ukraine. After the region around Kyiv was retaken, mass-graves were discovered in Bucha and signs of Russian atrocities were seen. In this photo from May 16, 2022, fl💟oral tributes and photographs of the victims of the battles for Irpin and Bucha that mark the graves in Irpin cemetery are seen. In the first few weeks, the towns around Kyiv were heavily damaged in Russia's failed attempt to take Kyiv.

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Ukraine Russia War
Ukraine Russia War Photo: Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images
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An elderly man walks among the graves of unidentified people killed෴ during Russian occupation in Bucha, a town near Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The dead were reburied from a mass grave. Hundreds of civilians were killed in the town by the Russians, according to Ukrainian authorities.

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Ukraine Russia War
Ukraine Russia War Photo: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
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Just before the first anniversary of the Ukraine War, US President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Ukrainian capital Kyiv, becoming the first President of the United States to visit an active warzone in over 100 year൲s. The visit was the firmest affirmation for the US support of Ukraine. Biden travelled for hours in a train from neighbouring Poland to Kyiv in a tr🌜ip organised in utmost secrecy and kept in wraps until his arrival in Ukraine.

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Photo: Sergei Chuzavkov/AFP via Getty Images
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At the time, the-then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was the most high-profile world leader to visit Ukraine in a show of support to the country ▨against Russia's ongoing invasion.

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Ukraine Russia War Photo: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images
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An elderly woman walks among the graves along the Alley of Heroes where Ukrainian soldiers who died in the Ukraine War are buried, in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, on February 22, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For the Ukrainian troops holding Russian forces from ci💎ties like Kostyantynivka, the task is becoming harder as their resources fall lower and lower.

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Ukraine Russia War
Ukraine Russia War Photo: Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images
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Two Russian soldiers patrol in the Mariupol drama theatr🐈e in Mariupol on April 12, 2022. Before the Russians took over Mariupol, they bombed the city in a long assault that devastated the most of the c🌠ity and destroyed much of the public infrastructure.

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Ukraine Russia War
Ukraine Russia War Photo: Diego Herrera C💎arcedo/Anadol𝐆u Agency via Getty Images
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Ukrainian soldiers work with 'pion' artillery in the northern direction of the Donbass frontline as the Ukraine War continues in the Don♍etsk region.

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Ukraine Russia War Photo: Pierre Crom/Getty Images
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A 𝓰pro-Russian rebel walks by a destroyed Ukrainian tank on February 7, 2015 in Uglegorsk in eastern Ukraine. Since 2014, pro-Russian fighters had been waging an insurgency against the Ukrainian government in the eastern part of the country. In 2014, Russia invaded and annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine.

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Ukraine Russia War Photo: Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images
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Ukrainian soldiers help an elderly woman to cross a destroyed bridge as 🌊she evacuates the c🗹ity of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, on March 8, 2022. More than 2 million people had to flee Ukraine in the first two weeks of the war as Russia bombed civilian areas indiscriminately and atrocities were reported in regions occupied by Russians.

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Ukraine Russia War Photo: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP via Getty Images
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People rest in a temporary shelter for Ukrainian refugees located near theꦅ Polish-Ukrainian border in a former shopping centre in Przemysl, Poland, on March 8, 2022. Poland alone has received nearly half of all those fleeing Ukraine with figures dated March 8, 2022 showing that 1.2 million had crossed into the country in the past 13 days.

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Ukraine Russia War Photo: Alexey Furman/Getty Images
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Ukrainian soldier waves Ukrainian national flag while standing on top of an armoured personnel carrier (APC) in Hostomel, Ukraine. While Russian President Vladimir Putin hoped to win the war within weeks and overthrow the Ukrainian government, the Ukrainians have managed to defend their country for two years in what has surprise🐭d even sta🧸unch supporters of the country.

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Photo: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
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A Ukrainian serviceman helps evacuees ꧑gathered under a destroyed bridge, as they flee the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv.

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Ukraine Russia War Photo: Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images
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Smo♒ke billows after a Russian attack on a shopping mall in a residential district of Kyiv. T🍷he Russians have targeted civilian buildings, such as housing complexes and shopping malls, throughout the war.

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Ukraine Russia War Photo: Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images
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A Ukrainian soldier of an artillery unit fires towards Russian positions outside Bakhmut on November 8, 2022, amid the Russ𓆏ian invasion of Ukraine. The Battle of Bakhmut has been the bloodiest of the war so far that the Russians won after months of grinding fighting of attrition.

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Ukraine Russia War
Ukraine Russia War Photo: Maja Hitij/Getty Images
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A boy rests on bag as people fleeing war𓂃-torn Ukraine arrive on a train from Poland shortly after midnight at Hauptbahnhof main railway station in Berlin, Germany.

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Ukraine Russia War Photo: Alexey Furman/Getty Images
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Destroyed houses on in Irpin, Ukraine.

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Ukraine Russia War
Ukraine Russia War Photo: Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images
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A man reacts at the body of a relative outside a destroyed building after bombings on the eastern Ukraine town of C𒁃huguiv.

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Ukraine Russia War Photo: Yevhen Titov/Anadolu via Getty Images
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Empty streets at Kivsharivka, in Kupyansk district of Khark🍌iv, Ukrai💫ne on February 22, 2024.

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Ukraine Russia War Photo: D🌌iego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu🍒 via Getty Images
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Ukrainian soldier goes out of✤ a shelter in his fighting position in the direction of Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, Uk▨raine. The Battle of Bakhmut, which the Russians eventually won, saw the most grinding fighting of the war.

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Ukraine Russia War
Ukraine Russia War Photo: Diego Fedele/Getty Images
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Friends and family take part in the funeral of theꦏ three civilians killed by a Russian missile attack on Febru꧒ary 22, 2024, in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. Russians have singled out civilian targets throughout the war.

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Ukraine Russia War
Ukraine Russia War Photo: Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images
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Abandoned strollers are pictured under a destroyed bridge as people flee the city of Irpin, west of Kyiv, on Mar🦂ch 7, 2022.