UKRAINE WAR IN MAPS - TRACKING THE RUSSIAN INVASION
BBC News 5 May 2022 - by the Visual Journalism Team
Russian forces are continuing to focus their attacks on the east of the country but resistance from Ukrainian troops is slowing their progress.
Here are the latest developments:
Russian forces making little progress around city of Izyum in the east
But strong Ukrainian defences in Donbas region are holding for now
Ukrainian forces pushing Russian troops back around Kharkiv
Russian forces are reported to have entered the Mariupol factory
Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, but its forces withdrew from around the capital Kyiv and surrounding regions to Belarus and western Russia in early April.
Russia has since refocused its efforts on taking control of the east and south of Ukraine.
Russia targets full control of 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.
But strong resistance from Ukrainian forces near Mykolaiv in the west and in Mariupol in the east significantly slowed Russian advances.
The port city of Mariupol, which has been encircled since the start of March, is now mostly under the control of Russian forces - and they are now concentrating their attacks on the Azovstal steel plant in the south of the city.
Russian forces reportedly stormed the plant Wednesday, and according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), their troops are now operating inside the factory. The Several hundred civilians have been evacuated from the steel plant in recent days but Russian forces have continued their aerial bombardment.
Several hundred Ukrainian troops are believed to remain in the tunnels underneath the steel plant.
To the west, Russia has been attempting to push towards Odesa, with the aim of cutting off Ukraine's access to the Black Sea, but their advances stalled at Mykolaiv.
Russian officials have said the objective is still to take control of all of southern Ukraine and establish a land corridor with Transnistria - a breakaway part of Moldova where Russian troops are already based.
There have been a series of explosions in Transnistria recently, which the Russian-backed government has blamed on Ukraine. However, Ukraine has claimed these are so-called "false flag" operations - an attempt by Russia to destabilise the region and spread the conflict.
Russian officials have said its forces are fighting for 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.
Russian forces appear to have stalled to the south of Izyum, according to the ISW, with Ukrainian troops managing to repel any attempted advances so far.
Ukrainian defences in the region have been in place since fighting began there in 2014 and the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) says Russian forces have failed to build much momentum in their advances so far.
A successful counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces around the city of Kharkiv, to the north west of Izyum, could also hamper Russian operations in the Donbas region in the coming weeks, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
North retaken after Russian retreat
Ukrainian forces retook large areas around Kyiv in early April after Russia abandoned its push towards Kyiv, which had begun in the first days of its invasion.
Successful counterattacks by Ukrainian forces helped retake areas around Kyiv and, as the Russians withdrew, the Ukrainians were able to advance all the way to their northern borders with Belarus and western Russia.
The MoD says large-scale military drills are taking place in Belarus and it seems likely Russia will "seek to inflate the threat posed to Ukraine" by these forces to focus the attention of Ukrainian troops on the north rather than the Donbas.
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.
