As the war entered into the spring and summer months of 2022, Russia’s territorial gains quickly became untenable as a determined Ukrainian counteroffensive, strengthened by Western military aid, steadily pushed back the invasion.
Kharkiv
One of Ukraine’s most successful counteroffensives took place in Kharkiv. Beginning in early September 2022, Ukrainian forces launched a rapid, coordinated assault, overwhelming Russian troops. Within days, Ukraine had liberated Izyum and Kupiansk, key logistical hubs. This counterattack forced Russia into a hasty retreat and led to one of the most significant territorial gains in the war up to that point.
Kherson
Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in August 2022 to retake Kherson, the first important city Russia had captured. After months of attacks on Russian supply lines, Russia announced its withdrawal on November 9, completing the retreat by November 11. The victory was both strategic and symbolic, as Kherson was the only regional capital Russia had seized.
In June 2023, footage showed water gushing from the Nova Kakhovka dam in Russian-controlled southern Ukraine, with images suggesting an explosion had damaged its structure. Located 30 km east of Kherson, the dam supplied water to southeastern Ukraine, Crimea, and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, crucial for cooling its reactors.
Odesa
A key naval base and export hub, Odesa was an early Russian target. But Ukraine’s coastal defences, including Neptune missiles, thwarted an amphibious assault. By April 2022, Ukraine sank the Moskva, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet flagship, deterring further naval advances.
Failing to seize the city, Russia imposed a naval blockade, crippling Ukraine’s grain exports and disrupting global food supplies.
Major attacks included the July 2023 port of Odesa bombing after Russia withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative and missile attacks on Transfiguration Cathedral, a UNESCO site, in July 2023.
Bakhmut
After Russian forces captured the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the Luhansk region in June and July 2022, Moscow began a ruthless offensive on Bakhmut in the neighbouring Donetsk region.
By November 2022, Ukraine had reclaimed 54 percent of the land Russia had captured since the beginning of the war, according to data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), reducing Russian-occupied land to just 18 percent of the country.