Previously President Volodymyr Zelensky may have been relatively unknown to those without eastern European political interest, but the invasion thrust his face across the globe.
Although many forget that by the time the 44-year-old came to power, Ukraine had been at war with Russia for more than five years.
The death toll had topped 13,000 and shelling was frequent but no one could have predicted the scale at which the war would ramp up a year ago on February 24, 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion.
