Three years ago today, the world woke up to a new war in Europe, the first major conflict to engulf the continent since World War 2.
For over 1,000 days, Ukrainians have bravely faced invading troops, and the conflict that Vladimir Putin surely expected to last only for days has become a war of attrition.
While Russia doesn’t share an official tally of its casualties, the Ukrainian General Staff of the Armed Forces claims well above 860,000 Russian soldiers have either been killed or wounded in the past three years.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared a rare public estimate with US news outlet NBC, claiming more than 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and some 380,000 wounded since the invasion began. However, independent analysts believe the numbers could be higher.
The return to the White House of Donald Trump has quickly and dramatically changed the landscape, with the US President shifting Washington’s position from one of unwavering support for Ukraine to outright attacks and criticism of Mr Zelensky.
While the outcome of the war remains uncertain, Daily Express has looked back at the past three years of conflict.
April 1, 2022: The world discovers the horrors of the Bucha massacre
Bucha, a city in the Kyiv region, fell into Russian hands on February 27, 2022. After a counter-attack launched by Ukraine, Kyiv forces forced the retreat of the Russian army from Bucha and entered the city on April 1, 2022. While reports of alleged war crimes by the hands of Russians had already emerged during the occupation, the return of Ukrainian officials to the area uncovered what Mr Zelensky branded a “genocide”, and pictures of mass graves and bodies of tied up civilians started to circulate. Russia denies any allegations regarding what has become known as the Bucha massacre.
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