The year 2024 saw the Russia-Ukraine war grind on into a second full year, marked by intense fighting on multiple fronts, high-stakes diplomatic initiatives, and a worsening humanitarian toll. To those of you unsure what happened during this long year of war that's passed, we've prepared a chronological timeline of key developments throughout 2024, broken down by quarters, covering military operations, diplomatic moves, and humanitarian impacts of this terrible war.
Escalation and Recruitment: In early January, Russia signaled its intent to bolster its forces. President Vladimir Putin issued a decree offering fast-track Russian citizenship to foreign nationals who signed up to fight in Ukraine, extending the offer to their immediate family members. This move was seen as an incentive to attract additional fighters as Russian losses mounted.
Deep Strikes and Skirmishes: The conflict’s reach extended beyond Ukraine’s borders. On January 18, Ukrainian sources claimed a long-range drone attack reached St. Petersburg, reportedly even flying near President Putin’s residence in the Valdai area. Russia’s defense ministry acknowledged intercepting two drones that day (one near St. Petersburg and one near Moscow) and reported a fire at an oil terminal, indicating one of Ukraine’s farthest north strikes of the war. Meanwhile, on the ground in Ukraine, frontline battles continued without major territorial changes. Fierce combat persisted in the Donetsk region, notably around the town of Avdiivka, where Russian forces pressed a brutal offensive. By February, Ukraine’s military had to withdraw from some ruined southeastern outskirts of Avdiivka under heavy assault (to save personnel), though this yielded no decisive breakthrough for Russia. The city’s remaining defenders entrenched in new positions as continuous bombardment turned Avdiivka into “a pile of broken bricks,” according to Ukrainian commanders.
Air War and Infrastructure: Throughout the winter, Russia maintained a campaign of air strikes against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. A particularly large wave struck on March 22, when Russia launched 151 missiles and drones in its biggest barrage against Ukraine’s energy grid since 2022. Ukrainian air defenses shot down most of the inbound weapons, but some got through – one blast damaged the Dnipro hydropower dam and caused blackouts across nine regions, leaving about one million people without power. Such attacks kept civilians in the cold and dark, illustrating the war’s humanitarian impact during the freezing months.
Anniversary and Sanctions: February 24, 2024 marked two years since the full-scale invasion. On the eve of this anniversary, Western allies coordinated new punitive measures. The United States announced over 500 fresh sanctions on Russian officials, entities, and the defense industry, intended both to penalize Russia’s ongoing aggression and to seek justice for imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny. This package – the largest single round of U.S. sanctions to date – targeted Russia’s financial networks and military supply chains. The European Union, United Kingdom, and Canada rolled out similar sanctions that week. Despite these pressures, Russia’s leadership remained defiant, and no peace talks occurred between Moscow and Kyiv in the war’s second anniversary month.
Stalled Offensive and New Fronts: By spring 2024, the strategic momentum had shifted compared to the previous year. Ukraine’s much-heralded 2023 counteroffensive had failed to achieve a major breakthrough, and Russian forces seized the initiative in early 2024. Capitalizing on superior manpower and fortified lines, Russia went on the attack in certain sectors. In April, Russian troops opened a new offensive in northeastern Ukraine (Kharkiv province), attempting to push Ukrainian defenders back from border areas. Ukrainian commanders warned that this assault in the north risked diverting resources from the main front in the east. Small Russian gains were noted – for example, Ukrainian officials acknowledged that by May 10 Russian units had edged Ukrainian positions about one kilometer away from the international border in Kharkiv Oblast. These movements were relatively limited, but they underscored that Russia was still on the offensive. In response, Ukraine’s parliament enacted a new mobilization law in May to make calling up reservists easier, potentially adding hundreds of thousands of fresh troops to Ukraine’s ranks.
Western Aid and Military Hardware: Ukraine’s war effort in early 2024 was shadowed by uncertainty over foreign aid. A large U.S. support package had been delayed in Congress, leading to warnings from Kyiv about ammunition shortages. This logjam broke in April: on April 21, after months of debate, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine, ensuring continued supplies of weapons and economic assistance. Around the same time, Ukraine demonstrated its growing long-range capabilities. On April 5, Ukrainian forces launched a series of drone strikes on military airbases deep inside western Russia, reportedly destroying or heavily damaging multiple Russian aircraft on the ground. These bold strikes behind enemy lines showed Kyiv’s intent to hit high-value targets far from the front.
Diplomacy and Peace Initiatives: Amid the ongoing fighting, international diplomacy tried to make headway toward resolving the conflict. In mid-June, Ukraine spearheaded a significant gathering of world leaders to discuss a peace framework. On June 15–16, Switzerland hosted a Ukraine peace summit at the Alpine resort of Bürgenstock, attended by representatives from over 90 countries. Notably, Russia was not invited (and dismissed the meeting as futile), and China declined to attend, limiting the event’s reach. Still, the summit produced a joint communiqué echoing Ukraine’s key demands: respect for its territorial integrity and condemnation of the suffering caused by Russia’s “war.”
The draft declaration urged the withdrawal of Russian troops and the return of occupied Ukrainian territory, while also pressing for safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the broad participation as a diplomatic success and said the world was “beginning to bring a just peace closer.” However, with Russia absent and fighting ongoing, the summit was a first step toward consensus among Ukraine’s allies rather than a negotiation to end the war. Separately, prisoner exchanges continued as one of the few channels of engagement between Russia and Ukraine – for instance, in mid-April the two sides conducted a swap freeing dozens of detainees each, an exchange facilitated by Turkey (following several such swaps in 2022–2023).
Humanitarian Situation: By the end of the second quarter, the human cost of the war had further risen. The United Nations reported that as of mid-2024, civilian casualties were continuing to mount from regular shelling and missile strikes. Millions of Ukrainians remained displaced from their homes. In fact, by August (just beyond Q2), an estimated 3.7 million people were internally displaced within Ukraine, and around 6.7 million Ukrainian refugees were living abroad due to the war. Countries across Europe hosted the majority of these refugees. Inside Ukraine, infrastructure damage compounded humanitarian needs; even as some reconstruction began in safer areas, Russian attacks on the power grid and housing left many reliant on emergency aid. The spring missile barrages and daily artillery duels in the Donbas exacted a steady toll on towns and civilians near the front lines. International aid organizations continued to provide food, medical care, and shelter materials, but access to combat zones remained difficult. The arrival of warmer months did little to alleviate the hardships for those in war-torn regions of Ukraine.
Intensified Fighting and a Deadly Airstrike: The summer of 2024 brought no respite, as both sides launched new operations. In early July, Ukraine signaled a possible counteroffensive push, while Russia escalated its aerial attacks to hinder Kyiv’s plans. The single deadliest attack on civilians of the year occurred on July 8, 2024, when Russia unleashed a massive coordinated missile strike across multiple Ukrainian cities.
Rescue personnel and medical staff gather outside Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital after it was severely damaged by a Russian missile strike on July 8, 2024. The attack was part of a nationwide barrage that killed dozens of civilians, including patients and health workers, and was one of the largest assaults on Ukraine’s capital in months. In Kyiv alone, at least 33 people were killed when missiles struck the country’s largest children’s hospital and surrounding residential areas. Nationwide, the death toll from that day’s multi-city strikes reached over 40 civilians. The United Nations human rights mission investigated the hospital blast and found a “high likelihood” it was a direct hit by a Russian missile, not just falling debris, underscoring the deliberate nature of the attack. The Kremlin denied targeting the hospital, but images of young cancer patients and doctors evacuating through rubble in Kyiv shocked the world. Ukraine declared a day of mourning and urgently renewed its pleas for better air defense systems. Analysts noted the timing: this devastating bombardment came just ahead of a major NATO summit, as if to demonstrate Moscow’s ability to strike at will. The NATO meeting in Washington, D.C. later that month responded by condemning the attacks and reiterating support for Ukraine (though direct intervention remained off the table).
Counteroffensive Efforts: On the battlefield, Ukraine sought to regain the initiative. Ukrainian forces, newly reinforced and equipped, probed Russian lines in the south and east. Through July and August, Ukrainian units gradually advanced on the outskirts of Bakhmut (the city in Donetsk that Russia had seized earlier) and made small gains in the southern Zaporizhzhia direction, though no major breakthroughs were reported. A notable boost came in August: after a year of lobbying, Ukraine finally began to receive modern Western fighter jets. On August 4, President Zelenskyy announced that Ukrainian pilots had started flying U.S.-made F-16 fighters in operational missions.
The first F-16s, provided by European allies, arrived more than 29 months into the war, marking a significant upgrade to Ukraine’s air capabilities. Zelenskyy praised the development – “F-16s are in Ukraine. We did it,” he said – but also noted that only a few pilots were trained and only a limited number of jets were available at first. Russia responded by warning it would treat the F-16s as prime targets, and indeed Russian forces launched strikes on airbases thought to house the new planes. Around the same time, Ukraine stepped up attacks on Russian-occupied Crimea, using drones and long-range missiles supplied by the West. In early August, explosions rocked depots and airfields in Crimea (for example, Aug 2 saw major blasts in Sevastopol and other sites) as Ukraine sought to degrade Russia’s logistics in the peninsula. By late August 26–28, Russia retaliated with another wave of heavy missile and drone strikes across Ukraine, killing dozens and temporarily knocking out power in multiple regions. This back-and-forth demonstrated how each time Ukraine tried to shift to the offensive, Russia answered with intensified bombardment, prolonging the stalemate.
Humanitarian Updates: The human toll remained severe through the summer. Frontline areas in eastern Ukraine saw continuous shellfire, making life virtually unlivable for remaining residents. In September, an incident highlighted the dangers faced by aid workers: three Ukrainian Red Cross volunteers were killed on September 12 by a Russian artillery strike while delivering aid near Kostyantynivka. Their deaths underscored the peril to humanitarian staff operating in contested zones. Nevertheless, some relief efforts persisted, including evacuation of civilians from high-risk areas and the repair of infrastructure where possible. Notably, amidst prisoner exchanges and negotiations on specific issues, a rare moment of cooperation occurred in mid-September – on September 14, Russia and Ukraine each exchanged 103 prisoners of war in a swap mediated by the United Arab Emirates. Such swaps, which had also happened periodically earlier in the war, were a glimmer of humanitarian progress even as combat raged on.
Battlefield Losses: Both militaries suffered heavy losses in Q3 as offensives and counteroffensives collided. Precise figures remained classified, but external estimates suggested record casualty rates, especially for Russia. Ukrainian officials claimed that September 2024 was the bloodiest month of the war for Russian forces, with an average of over 1,200 Russian soldiers killed or injured each day. (These figures, if accurate, reflect intense battles like those around Avdiivka and along the southern front.) Ukrainian forces also took significant casualties in their attacks on entrenched Russian lines, though Ukraine did not release comparable numbers. The war had become a grinding war of attrition by late summer – “slow, intense, and deadly” in the words of one Western observer – with incremental territorial changes coming at a high cost in lives.
Continued Stalemate and Winter Fighting: As autumn set in, neither side achieved a decisive breakthrough, and the conflict settled into a hard-fought stalemate with localized offensives. Russian troops continued trying to inch forward in the Donbas (pressing particularly around Avdiivka and Kupiansk), while Ukrainian forces probed for weak spots in the southern Melitopol sector. The front lines by late 2024 looked similar to those earlier in the year, with Russia still occupying roughly 20% of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea and parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions. Both armies dug new trenches and fortified positions in preparation for winter. President Zelenskyy, in an address to Ukraine’s parliament on October 16, unveiled a “victory plan,” reiterating that Ukraine’s goals were the full liberation of its land and security guarantees for the future. His plan included proposals for eventual NATO membership and legally binding international assurances to prevent any renewed aggression. This served as a statement of intent that Ukraine would fight on and seek a just peace on its terms, even as outside observers debated the prospects of negotiations. Moscow, for its part, indicated no softening of war aims; President Putin used public appearances to insist the war was proceeding “according to plan” and that Russia would prevail in achieving “demilitarization” of Ukraine. Any direct peace talks remained frozen, with each government effectively ruling out concessions the other would demand.
Air Attacks and Drones: With the approach of another winter, Russia resumed large-scale strikes aimed at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and cities, mirroring the strategy of the previous year. On November 17, the Russian military launched one of the most extensive air raids in months, firing waves of missiles and drones at Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Kryvyi Rih, and other population centers. The barrage knocked out power in several areas and killed at least a handful of civilians (reports said two people died in Mykolaiv, two in Nikopol, two in Odesa, and one in Lviv). Analysts viewed this attack as an attempt to cripple Ukraine’s electrical grid ahead of winter, echoing Russia’s tactics from late 2022. Ukraine, having improved its air defenses with Western help, managed to intercept many incoming missiles, but some infrastructure was damaged, leading to rolling blackouts. Meanwhile, Ukrainian long-range drones struck back at targets deep in Russia. Throughout October and November, Kyiv intensified drone incursions into Russian territory, especially aiming at Moscow.
On November 10th, for example, a swarm of 32 Ukrainian drones targeted the Moscow region, even briefly forcing the shutdown of major airports as a precaution. While most of these drones were shot down and caused only minor damage (one injury was reported in that incident), the psychological impact in Russia was notable – the war was now felt in the skies over the Russian capital on multiple occasions. Such drone strikes on Moscow and other cities (including near the Kremlin and military airfields) had begun in mid-2023 and peaked toward the end of 2024, signaling Ukraine’s expanding reach. Russia accused Ukraine of “terrorist attacks,” and Ukraine typically stopped short of publicly claiming responsibility, even as officials hinted that “the war is moving to Russia’s territory.” These tit-for-tat attacks from afar – Russian missile salvos into Ukraine, and Ukrainian drones probing deep into Russia – defined the late 2024 conflict as much as the grinding trench warfare did.
International Developments: International response in late 2024 remained robust in support of Ukraine, but there were signs of war-weariness in some countries. NATO and EU states continued to supply arms and aid; a notable moment came in early November, when the EU approved an additional €50 billion support package for Ukraine (spread over several years) to help finance the government and military. The United Kingdom, under a new government, reaffirmed its military assistance as well, including more drones and training for Ukrainian soldiers. At the United Nations, Western powers pressed Russia on humanitarian issues – for instance, demanding the renewal of the Black Sea grain export deal that Russia had allowed to lapse earlier, which was vital for global food markets. (Russia had withdrawn from the grain corridor agreement in mid-2023; despite talks in the fall of 2024 involving Turkey and the UN, the deal was not reinstated, and Russian forces continued periodically attacking Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Black Sea and Danube.)
One diplomatic setback for Moscow came in October: Russia failed in its attempt to rejoin the U.N. Human Rights Council, as the General Assembly voted down its membership due to the invasion’s ongoing human rights abuses. On the whole, Russia remained internationally isolated, facing sanctions and UN resolutions, while Ukraine’s allies pledged that support would not waver. Still, global attention was partly diverted by other crises (such as conflicts in the Middle East), and some voices in Europe and the U.S. urged moves toward negotiations. No major peace talks materialized by year’s end, as both Kyiv and Moscow believed time could still yield a better battlefield position.
Humanitarian and Refugee Impact: The humanitarian situation in Ukraine as 2024 ended was dire. By late 2024, an estimated 12 million+ Ukrainians were in need of humanitarian assistance, according to UN agencies. The destruction of housing, schools, hospitals, and utilities over two years of war left many communities struggling to survive. Millions remained displaced – around 3.7 million people were internally displaced inside Ukraine, and approximately 6.7 million Ukrainian refugees were living abroad (with about 6.2 million sheltering elsewhere in Europe). These numbers represented one of the largest refugee crises in recent history. Inside Ukraine, relief organizations raced to winterize shelters and repair heating systems, as Russian strikes frequently knocked out power and water supplies. In cities like Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, volunteers and local authorities set up “invincibility points” where residents could warm up and charge devices during outages. Civilian casualties continued to mount each week.
The UN reported that by the end of 2024, thousands of Ukrainian civilians had been killed since the war’s start (with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights citing over 10,000 verified civilian deaths, though the true number is likely higher), and tens of thousands more had been injured. Many of the worst incidents – such as the missile strike on the Kramatorsk pizza restaurant in June, the Chernihiv city center bombing in August, and repeated attacks on civilian convoys – remained under investigation as possible war crimes. Ukrainian prosecutors had opened over 129,000 cases of alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces as of mid-2024, illustrating the scale of reported atrocities (from Bucha in 2022 to new allegations in occupied areas in 2024). The International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for President Putin (issued in 2023 over deportations of Ukrainian children) still stood, and ICC investigators visited attack sites like the Kyiv children’s hospital after the July strike. Amid all this, humanitarian organizations struggled to provide aid. Access to Russian-occupied territories remained extremely limited, raising concerns about the populations behind the front lines. In government-controlled Ukraine, the UNHCR and partners sought hundreds of millions in funding for winter relief and infrastructure repair, emphasizing that needs were growing faster than assistance.
Outlook at 2024’s End: By the close of 2024, the Russia-Ukraine war had become a protracted conflict with no clear end in sight. Militarily, Ukraine had demonstrated resilience – thwarting Russia’s spring attacks and gradually receiving more advanced Western weapons – but it had not yet succeeded in expelling the invaders from occupied land. Russia controlled significant portions of eastern and southern Ukraine, but also failed to secure a quick victory or break Ukraine’s will to fight. Diplomatically, efforts like the Swiss summit and various backchannel talks kept alive the prospect of a negotiated peace, yet fundamental disagreements (especially over territory) made any compromise distant. The humanitarian cost continued to rise, impacting not just Ukraine but the world (through global food supply shocks and economic strain). As 2024 turned to 2025, Ukraine and its allies prepared for another difficult winter of war, hopeful that continued international support and internal resolve would eventually lead to a turning point. Both sides braced for what the third year of full-scale conflict might bring, even as the events of 2024 had already become another chapter of sorrow and resilience in this ongoing war.
