BBC News 12 April 2022 - by the Visual Journalism Team
Russia is now focusing on taking territory in the eastern regions of Ukraine, having fully withdrawn troops from north of the country.
Here are the latest developments on day 46 of the invasion:
- Ukraine and Russia are building up their military forces in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk
- The US and Britain say they are looking into reports that Russian forces have used chemical weapons in Mariupol
- Russian forces continue to capture ground in Mariupol, but pockets of Ukrainian resistance remain
Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, but its forces have now fully withdrawn from around the capital Kyiv and northern Ukraine to Belarus and Russia.
Fighting in eastern Ukraine is expected to intensify in the coming weeks as Russia continues to refocus its efforts there, according the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Russian units in Belarus are being redeployed to support those operations, the MoD says.
Russia targets full control in the east
Russian officials have said that the focus of their forces is now the "complete liberation" of the Donbas, which broadly refers to Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where Russian-backed separatists held significant territory before the invasion.
Western officials say they expect Russia to double or even possibly triple its troops numbers in the Donbas. Reports and satellite images suggest a build-up of Russian forces is underway on Ukraine's border, in Russia's Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov regions.
Reinforcements are also building up in the Kharkiv region to support the Russian push south. They are hoping to advance down from Izyum towards Slovyansk and encircle Ukrainian forces, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Meanwhile, Russian troops continue to launch air and artillery attacks on Kharkiv and other cities. The Ukrainian governor of Donetsk said told the BBC there were battles all day, every day along the demarcation line between the two sides. Ukraine is also reported to be deploying reinforcements, but not on the same scale as the Russians.
The governor of Luhansk has called on all civilians to evacuate to safer regions in the centre or west of Ukraine.
Russian progress slows in the south
Russian forces initially made rapid gains in the south, with their main objective being the creation of a land corridor between Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and areas held by Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk.
Standing in the way of that objective has been the port city of Mariupol, which has been encircled by Russian forces since the start of March.
Russian forces have been slowly pushing into the centre of the city, meeting fierce resistance from the Ukrainians. Pockets of Ukrainian fighters remain but Russian troops have now reached the port and divided the Ukrainian forces there into two areas.
Analysts say it is unclear how much longer the Ukrainians can hold on.
The US and Britain say they are looking into reports that chemical weapons have been used by Russian forces against Ukrainian militia guarding the city's Azovstal steelworks.
To the west, Russia had been attempting to push towards Odesa, with the aim of cutting off Ukraine's access to the Black Sea.
Their advances stalled at Mykolaiv, where a counter-attack by Ukrainian troops pushed Russian forces back towards the city of Kherson.
The ISW believes that after successfully resisting Russian counter-attacks in the region, Ukrainian troops may attempt larger-push in the direction of Kherson city in the coming weeks.
Ukraine controls the areas around Kyiv in north
Over the past week, after failing to reach or fully encircle the capital city of Kyiv, Russian forces have withdrawn from northern Ukraine.
Their retreat has allowed a clearer picture to emerge of the huge amount of damage and destruction to lives and property in towns and villages seized during their push towards the capital, with allegations of war crimes having been committed by Russian troops.
The Russian withdrawal has also allowed Ukrainian forces to retake the area around Chernihiv, a strategically important city to the north-east of Kyiv that sits between the capital and the Russian border.
By David Brown, Bella Hurrell, Dominic Bailey, Mike Hills, Lucy Rodgers, Paul Sargeant, Mark Bryson, Zoe Bartholomew, Sean Willmott, Sana Dionysiou, Joy Roxas, Gerry Fletcher, Jana Tauschinsk, Debie Loizou and Prina Shah.
About these maps
To indicate which parts of Ukraine are under control by Russian troops we are using daily assessments published by the Institute for the Study of War with the American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project.
From 2 March this daily assessment differentiated between "Assessed Russian-controlled Ukrainian territory" and "Assessed Russian advances in Ukraine", the latter indicating areas where Russians are believed to have launched attacks from but which they do not control.
To show key areas where advances are taking place we are also using daily updates from the UK Ministry of Defence and BBC research.
The situation in Ukraine is fast moving and it is likely there will be times when there have been changes not reflected in the maps.
