Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, Ukraine became an independent state, formalized with a referendum. With the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, Ukraine became an area of overlapping spheres of influence between the European Union and the Russian Federation.
Russia controls more than 90,000 square kilometres (34,750 square miles) of territory or about 15 percent of Ukraine's total area – roughly the size of Portugal or Jordan. Russia had annexed Crimea in 2014.
Pashchenko is one of around 175,000 Russian citizens currently in Ukraine with a residency permit. Their status is regulated by immigration laws and rules, but Ukrainian authorities stopped extending those permits after the invasion. In some cases, Ukrainian authorities have even threatened deportation.
Russia currently occupies approximately 114,000 sq km of Ukrainian territory, as of 6 October. The New Statesman has built an interactive map to show what an area of that size would look like when compared to other countries or territories.
Russia still holds about 20% of Ukraine, according to the ISW. The areas are largely in the eastern Donbas region and in the south of mainland Ukraine, as well as the Crimea peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014.
Despite Ukraine's recent success, Russia controls about 116,000 square kilometers of what is internationally recognized as Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, annexed in 2014. All that land is roughly the size of Bulgaria or the state of Pennsylvania.
How much territory does Russia still occupy? Russia still holds about 20% of Ukraine, according to the ISW. The areas are largely in the eastern Donbas region and in the south of mainland Ukraine, as well as the Crimea peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014.
The area is now occupied by Russia. In 2014, Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.
On June 2, 2022, Zelenskyy announced that Russia occupied approximately 20% of Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine says it recaptured 6,000 sq km (2,317 sq miles) of territory from Russia in early September, when it forced back Russian units in the Kharkiv region.
Since January 2021, the United States has invested approximately $18.3 billion in security assistance to demonstrate our enduring and steadfast commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
After the Russian Revolution, a Ukrainian national movement re-emerged, and formed the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1917. This short-lived state was forcibly reconstituted by the Bolsheviks into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a founding member of the Soviet Union in 1922.
Russia's formal annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia ostensibly gives it control over 15 percent of Ukrainian territory. It expands Moscow's authority over wider portions of Donetsk and Luhansk, collectively known as Donbas.
On June 2, 2022, Zelenskyy announced that Russia occupied approximately 20% of Ukrainian territory.
Relations between the two countries became hostile after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, which was followed by Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and due to Russia's backing for the separatist fighters of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic in a war, conflicts that had killed more …
The Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917 to 1921 produced the Makhnovshchina, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (in 1919 merged from the Ukrainian People's Republic and West Ukrainian People's Republic) which was quickly subsumed in the Soviet Union.
The invasion began at dawn of 24 February, with infantry divisions and armoured and air support in Eastern Ukraine, and dozens of missile attacks across both Eastern Ukraine and Western Ukraine. The first fighting took place in Luhansk Oblast near Milove village on the border with Russia at 3:40 am Kyiv time.
Ukraine became independent again when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. This started a period of transition to a market economy, in which Ukraine suffered an eight-year recession. Subsequently however, the economy experienced a high increase in GDP growth until the economy plunged during the Great Recession.