In November of 2021, satellite imagery showed nearly 100,000 Russian military troops making their way to the Ukrainian border with tanks and other military hardware as fears of an invasion began to form.
In December, Russia was issued warnings by the United States threatening economic sanctions if they tried to seize the country.
One month later, President Joe Biden reassured Ukraine that if action was taken by the military surrounding its borders, they would respond “decisively.”
By the end of January, as peace talks failed, the US put 8,500 troops on alert and some countries began evacuating their non-essential embassy staff in Kyiv as fears began to grow.
Despite denying a planned attack, Putin had 70% of troops in place for a full-scale invasion by February 6, according to US reports.
Putin publicly hit out at the fact that the US and NATO had not responded “satisfactorily” to Russian demands - which would see Ukraine be prohibited from joining the alliance and NATO pulling back forces from Eastern Europe.
Then on February 23, Ukraine declared a nationwide state of emergency, as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the General Assembly the world was “facing a moment of peril.”
Just 24 hours later, Russia launched its planned full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has killed 902 people up to March 19 - 75 of whom were children.
There has also been a total of 1,459 injuries reported up to this date, and 98 of them are children.
Statistics show 877 Russians have been targeted by EU sanctions up to March 15 along with 415 Russian entities - with more sanctions being threatened by the US, UK, and EU as the invasion continues.
According to the available figures, 38 countries have so far closed their airspace to Russian airlines in the midst of the violent chaos.
As the invasion unfolded, Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy resorted to asking all men between the ages of 18 and 60 to stay and fight for their country.
The sheer magnitude of the Russian military forces far outnumber the Ukrainians, however today, Ukraine rejected a call to surrender the besieged city of Mariupol.
According to a Russian state news agency, Moscow gave Kyiv until the early hours of March 21 to lay down their arms, which has since been declined.
Ukraine is vastly outmatched by Russia’s military in terms of numbers and firepower, as the latter has had access to 4,173 aircraft for use in this invasion, while Ukraine has just 318 to defend with.
There are 30,122 armed Russian vehicles against 12,303 in Ukraine, and 12,420 Russian tanks on-site, while the Ukrainian military has access to 2,596.
As the devastation continues for the third week, the city of Mariupol faced another night of terror on Sunday, with further bombings and airstrikes continuing to target the region.
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