War in Ukraine: Two years since Russia’s invasion

(NewsNation) — Saturday marks the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that has led to a war of attrition between the two nations and isn’t showing any sign of resolve.

The second year of Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion has brought no respite for Ukrainian soldiers or civilians. The past two years have brought death, destruction, agony and grief to the nation.

The countryside in eastern areas of Ukraine — an industrial region bordering Russia where some of the most intense fighting has unfolded since the war began — is now punctuated with splintered and smashed trees reminiscent of a World War I battlefield.

Away from it, bodies littered ruined buildings, forests and roadsides during the war’s second year. Russian barrages repeatedly blasted civilian targets, frequently reducing apartment buildings to rubble, flames and smoke.

Communities disappeared, replaced by grim desolation. Relatives wept over the open coffins of their loved ones. The young and old, and their pets, lost their homes or fled them.

The conflict has killed more than 10,000 civilians and wounded nearly 20,000 others, the United Nations says. The cost of reconstruction is likely to run into hundreds of billions of dollars.

Ahead of the second anniversary, the United States and European Union are piling new sanctions against Russia in retaliation for Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s death last week.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday imposed more than 500 new sanctions on Russia and its war machine in the largest single tranche of penalties since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

The sanctions come on the heels of a series of new arrests and indictments announced by the Justice Department on Thursday that target Russian businessmen, including the head of Russia’s second-largest bank, and their middlemen in five separate federal cases.

“The American people and people around the world understand that the stakes of this fight extend far beyond Ukraine,” President Joe Biden said in a statement announcing the sanctions. “If Putin does not pay the price for his death and destruction, he will keep going. And the costs to the United States — along with our NATO Allies and partners in Europe and around the world — will rise.”

The European Union announced Friday it is imposing sanctions on several foreign companies over allegations they have exported dual-use goods to Russia that could be used in its war against Ukraine.

The 27-nation bloc also said it was targeting scores of Russian officials, including “members of the judiciary, local politicians and people responsible for the illegal deportation and military re-education of Ukrainian children.”

Russian troops advanced and took over the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka earlier this week. It was a hard fought victory for the Russians and a testament to the way the war has transpired over the past two years.

A declassified U.S. intelligence report from December estimated the war has resulted in more than 300,000 Russian casualties. Ukraine’s casualties are kept confidential but are estimated to be lower.

Since Russia’s invasion, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with around $75 billion in military, financial and humanitarian aid. As a result, Ukraine has been able to retake a little over half of the land Russia occupied at the start of the war. That includes the city of Kherson.

Striking images from the beginning of the war still hold true today. The world witnessed the single largest movement of people in Europe since World War II as millions picked up and left the country days after the invasion.

To this day, the U.N. estimates 3.7 million people were internally displaced in Ukraine. Another 5.9 million remain displaced outside Ukraine.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.