On February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin unleashed his troops on Ukraine, in what was supposed to be a blitzkrieg. A year of war later, Kiev continues to resist, but the toll, tens of thousands of deaths, Dantesque destruction, an economy on its knees, is terrifying. The first Russian bombings, the Butcha massacre, or the martyrdom of the inhabitants of Mariupol... Here are the images of a year of conflict in Ukraine.


Director: Olivier JUSZCZAK

  • On February 24, 2022, President Putin ordered a "special military operation" in Ukraine. Russia bombs major Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kiev.

  • According to the West, Russia had massed 150,000 men on its borders with Ukraine and another 30,000 in the north, at its Belarusian ally.

  • Vladimir Putin is launching the Russian army in Ukraine with the aim of "demilitarizing" and "de-Nazifying" the country.

  • According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nearly 8 million Ukrainian refugees have left the country since the beginning of the conflict.

  • The Irpin Bridge on the outskirts of Kiev is the symbol of this exodus.

  • The international community is mobilizing to impose economic sanctions on Russia and provide assistance to Ukraine.

  • To the east, the port city of Mariupol is the symbol of the barbaric relentlessness of Russian troops. The city is shelled by Vladimir Putin's bombs. More than 20,000 Ukrainian civilians will die in the battle, which ended in May, Kiev estimates.

  • The theatre, where children are refugees, and the maternity ward are bombed. A photographer was able to document the martyrdom of the city for several weeks. This woman and the child she is carrying will not survive.

  • The goal was a quick invasion of Ukraine, but the Russian advance slowed and the tanks began to get bogged down in the "rasputitsa", the thaw of the land. Vladimir Putin orders the withdrawal of Russian troops from northern Kiev to refocus on the eastern front in Donbass.

  • In April, the war reached a new level of inhumanity after the discovery of hundreds of civilian bodies lying in the streets of Butcha, a city near Kiev.

  • This small town northwest of Kiev was occupied by the Russian army on February 27, remaining inaccessible for more than a month. Not to mention the Kramatorsk train station bombed as thousands of civilians tried to evacuate the area.

  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky becomes a warlord. The International Criminal Court will open an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine on 2 March 2022.

  • Ukraine is accused on a few occasions of having committed war crimes against Russian prisoners, but out of all proportion to the facts attributed to Moscow's forces.

  • During the summer, pocket bombings of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, raise fears of the worst. In September, the Ukrainian army launched a counter-offensive.

  • On 8 October 2022, the Crimean Bridge, a symbol of the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula, was partially destroyed by a truck bomb attack.

  • In total, 30,000 to 40,000 civilians have lost their lives since the beginning of the conflict, according to Western sources. Most of the victims died in Russian bombing, according to the UN.

  • In November, the city of Kherson was liberated. 180,000 dead or wounded among Russian soldiers, 100,000 on the Ukrainian side... The toll, according to Norway, of military losses since the beginning of the conflict is dizzying. Other Western sources mention 150,000 casualties on each side.

  • Bucha
  • Slideshow
  • War
  • Kiev (Kyiv)
  • Mariupol
  • War in Ukraine
  • Volodymyr Zelensky