{"id":442811,"date":"2026-02-24T10:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T10:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/442811\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T10:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T10:24:09","slug":"ukraine-russia-war-latest-putin-has-not-achieved-his-goals-zelensky-says-on-fourth-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/442811\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin has not achieved his goals, Zelensky says on fourth anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How Russia&#8217;s full-scale invasion of Ukraine unfolded in the first days of the warpublished at 06:55 GMT<\/p>\n<p>06:55 GMT<\/p>\n<p>      <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Smoke rises from a building while a firefighter on a crane sprays water from a hose\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/373e2107-ac38-45ba-b001-dc5123bfd6fa.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"594\" height=\"334\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Firefighters work to extinguish a fire after an air strike on an apartment building in the Kharkiv region, 24 February, 2022<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Though 24 February, 2022 is seen as the start of Russia&#8217;s full-scale war in Ukraine, fears of an invasion had been rising in the months before. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">By 18 February, the US estimated that between 169,000 and 190,000 Russian troops had massed along Ukraine&#8217;s borders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">On 21 February, Moscow officially recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine &#8211; the Donetsk People&#8217;s Republic and the Luhansk People&#8217;s Republic &#8211; as independent states. Russian troops were deployed there, which Vladimir Putin said were for &#8220;peacekeeping&#8221; purposes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In the early hours of 24 February, Putin announced a &#8220;military operation&#8221; in Donbas, in a TV address, and demanded the Ukrainian military lay down its arms. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Russian forces then launched a major land, air and sea assault on Ukraine, first striking Ukraine&#8217;s military infrastructure and border guard units.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ukrainian forces next said Russian military vehicles had crossed the border near Kharkiv in the north, Luhansk in the east, Russian-annexed Crimea in the south and from Belarus too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Explosions were heard in multiple cities, including Kyiv and Kharkiv, as residents flocked to underground shelters. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">On 25 February, Russian tanks were filmed entering the capital city Kyiv for the first time, as the city was hit by overnight blasts that injured several civilians. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">By this point, tens of thousands of Ukrainians had already crossed into five countries bordering western Ukraine, attempting to flee the invasion. This figure had risen to more than half a million by 28 February. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Four people in warm coats check sit on sofas checking rifles\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/65a4b9b9-fd7e-4dfd-979a-15acf947679d.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"594\" height=\"334\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Civilian volunteers check their guns at a Territorial Defence unit registration office in Kyiv, 26 February 2022<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Four children wrapped up in winter coats sit under a yellow blanket\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/897f3c48-8afd-425b-9983-9d705a3f21e8.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"594\" height=\"334\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, NurPhoto via Getty ImagesImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Children waiting to board an evacuation train to Poland at Lviv railway station, 28 February 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How Russia&#8217;s full-scale invasion of Ukraine unfolded in the first days of the warpublished at 06:55 GMT 06:55&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-442811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}