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Map by Evan Centanni and Djordje Djukic. Contact us for permission to use this map.
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Timeline by Djordje Djukic
Russia Completes Withdrawal from Northern Ukraine
In the more than two weeks since PolGeoNow's previous Ukraine control map report, Russian forces have completed their withdrawal from north-central Ukraine, and are now beginning a new push to complete their control of the eastern Donbass (Donetsk and Luhansk) region. Fighting this month has largely been focused on the southeastern city of Mariupol, which is now thought to be under full Russian control except for one industrial area. If Russia completes its control there, Mariupol will be the largest city captured since the start of the 2022 invasion.
 Full Country Name: • Ukraine (English) • Ukrayina (Ukrainian) Capital: Kyiv |
Timeline of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict
The following is a chronology of changes to territorial control and other major events since our previous map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine dated April 2, 2022.
Terminology notes: On our map and timeline we have generally spelled place names within Ukraine based on the Ukrainian-language versions, since Ukrainian is the country's official language. Many places have an alternate name based on the Russian language, which is also spoken in Ukraine. We have made exceptions for some places with well-established English names, such as Odessa and the Dnieper River.
In the case of the Luhansk/Lugansk, PolGeoNow uses the Ukrainian spelling ("Luhansk") for the province of Ukraine, and the Russian spelling ("Lugansk") for the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, whose official language is Russian. For Ukraine's capital city, historically known in English by its Russian name, Kiev, we have used the Ukrainian version, Kyiv, in order to conform to both our own convention and the emerging consensus among English-language news media.
Ukraine's administrative subdivisions are called "provinces" in our timeline, but it's also common to hear them referred to as "regions", or by the Ukrainian-language term, "oblast". Provinces have only been labeled by name on the above map when they're mentioned in the timeline but don't share their name with a major city that's already labeled.
April 3, 2022
Russia was accused of a "deliberate massacre" by Ukraine after the bodies of 410 civilians were recovered in towns in Kyiv province retaken by Ukrainian troops after the Russian military withdrew. Of these, 300 were found in just the town of Bucha.
In central and southern Ukraine, Russian missile strikes destroyed an oil refinery in Kremenchuk, Poltava province, and also hit an oil refinery and three storage facilities near the port city of Odessa.
In the north and northeast, according to conflict tracker Suriyak, Russian forces completed their withdrawal from Chernihiv and Sumy provinces, with Ukrainian troops retaking control of Konotop district in Sumy. Meanwhile, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the Russian military was still in the process of withdrawing from Chernihiv and Sumy, with the possibility of a continued Russian territorial salient around Konotop and Sumy city. Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces retook control of the area around a ghost city near the Chernobyl nuclear plant, as well as the nearby section of Ukraine’s border with Belarus. Further east, Russian shelling of Kharkiv killed seven people and wounded 34 according to Ukraine.
In the east, Russian forces captured a village east of Izium and were heading towards a second, while Ukrainian troops evacuated civilians from four villages southeast of Sievierodonetsk amid an LPR advance. Meanwhile, almost half of Rubizhne, northwest of Sievierodonetsk, was under LPR control, while street fighting continued there. Elsewhere, in the southeast, Lithuanian documentary film director Mantas Kvedaravicius was killed in Mariupol, while Russian and DPR forces continued to make small advances in the city’s Prymors'kyi and Livoberezhnyi districts amid heavy fighting.
In the south, Russian shelling of a town between Odessa and Mykolaiv, and of Mykolaiv itself, left eight people dead and 34 injured.
April 4, 2022
In the north, according to the ISW, Russian forces continued to withdraw from Chernihiv province, while Ukrainian forces continued to clear Sumy’s Romny district. The same day, the governor of Chernihiv announced that the Russian military had completely withdrawn from the province.
In the east, Russian forces made a small reconnaissance advance south of Izium. Meanwhile, DPR forces captured a village north of Donetsk, while LPR troops captured the industrial area of Popasne and were slowly advancing southeast of Sievierodonetsk. In the southeastern city of Mariupol, 267 Ukrainian soldiers reportedly surrendered as Russian troops attacked the Ukraine-controlled part of Prymors'kyi district.
In the south, Ukrainian forces advanced south of Snihurivka, reaching a village on the provincial border of Mykolaiv and Kherson, 17 kilometers (11 miles) northeast of Kherson city. Meanwhile, 11 people were killed and 61 injured in Russian shelling of Mykolaiv city.
April 5, 2022
In the east, Russian forces advanced seven kilometers (four miles) from their positions southwest of Izium, capturing a village. They also attempted to seize another nearby village but were reportedly repelled.
 Proclaimed Country Name: • Donetsk People's Republic (English) • Donetskaya Narodnaya Respublika (Russian) Capital: Donetsk Recognized by: Russia Status According to Others: Province of Ukraine |
In the southeast, Russian shelling and a missile strike from the sea hit a foreign merchant ship in Mariupol’s port, causing the ship to sink, according to Ukraine and the ship’s flag registry. According to the DPR, "fire and heavy smoke" were observed on Turkish ship the Azburg
amid destruction of the port and foreign ships docked in it by
Ukrainian forces ahead of their capture by the Russian military.
Meanwhile, Russia stated that its forces shot down two military transport helicopters that were trying to evacuate the leadership of Ukraine's neo-Nazi-leaning Azov Battalion from Mariupol. Two previous attempts to evacuate the battalion’s command from the city via helicopters had been prevented by Russian forces.
Meanwhile, Russia announced its final offensive to seize the last pockets of Ukrainian resistance in the city, with a Russian offer of safe passage out of Mariupol for the remaining Ukrainian troops allegedly having been ignored. A new assault on Prymors'kyi district was launched.
In the south, Russian forces attacked a village
around 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Kherson that had previously
been recaptured by Ukrainian troops in mid-March. The Russian forces
were partially successful.
April 6, 2022
In the north, according to the ISW and the governor of Sumy, Russian forces completed their withdrawal from that province. The US also assessed that the Russian military had fully withdrawn from Kyiv and Chernihiv provinces. Meanwhile, the mayor of Kyiv stated that 89 civilians had been killed in the capital since the start of the invasion.
In the south, Ukrainian forces seized four villages in the north of Kherson province, while Russian forces re-entered Snihurivka in Mykolaiv province. Meanwhile, fighting continued in the village west of Kherson. In the southeast, the Ukrainian Navy's command ship the Donbass was observed engulfed in heavy smoke and possibly on fire in Mariupol’s port.
April 7, 2022
The DPR announced
that central Mariupol had been cleared of Ukrainian forces. Fighting
had not been reported there since April 2, when the Ukrainian State
Security Service building was seized by Russian troops. Meanwhile,
fighting continued around Mariupol’s port in the southwest of the city,
where the Ukrainian forces were still in partial control. The Russian
military had advanced from the southwest between April 1 and 7.
Elsewhere, Russian forces captured a bridge in Mariupol leading into the “Azovstal” iron and steel plant.
April 8, 2022
According to a Western official, Russia reorganized its military command
in Ukraine, appointing Gen. Alexander Dvornikov as the overall
commander. Gen Dvornikov had extensive previous experience from the war
in Syria.
In the north, the governor of Sumy announced that Ukrainian forces had reestablished control over his whole province. Meanwhile, it was reported that 132 bodies of executed civilians had been found in Makariv, west of Kyiv. Elsewhere, the mayor of Chernihiv announced
that around 700 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians had been killed during
the Russian military’s siege of the city. Previously it had been
reported that between 350 and 400 civilians had died in Chernihiv.
In the east, a Russian rocket strike on a train station in a town northwest of Horlivka left 57 people dead and 109 wounded according to Ukraine, which accused Russia of targeting evacuating civilians, while Russia denied
carrying out any attack. In the southeast, Russian and DPR forces broke
through Ukrainian lines in Mariupol’s Prymors'kyi district, capturing the southwestern part of the city’s port. The Azov Battalion claimed that during the fighting Russian forces shelled the icebreaker Kapitan Belousov in Mariupol’s port, killing one crewmember.
April 9, 2022
In Poltava province of central Ukraine, Russian strikes on a Ukrainian military air base caused “significant damage” and reportedly destroyed an ammunition depot, as well as a fighter jet and a helicopter.
In the northeast, Ukrainian forces recaptured a village on the northeastern outskirts of Kharkiv, while Russian shelling of four towns around Kharkiv left 10 civilians dead.
As part of a prisoner exchange, 12 Ukrainian soldiers and 14 civilians were released in exchange for 14 Russian sailors of the Azov Concord civilian vessel held in Mariupol, four Rosatom (Russian state nuclear energy company) employees, and several Russian soldiers.
 Proclaimed Country Name: • Lugansk People's Republic (English) • Luganskaya Narodnaya Respublika (Russian) Capital: Lugansk (Luhansk) Recognized by: Russia Status According to Others: Province of Ukraine |
A Russian missile strike on the outskirts of the central city of Dnipro reportedly destroyed four Ukrainian S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems and hit 25 Ukrainian soldiers. Meanwhile, Ukraine claimed that the bodies of 1,222 civilians had been retrieved from formerly Russian-controlled areas of Kyiv province.
In the southeast, Russian forces captured the fishing port area of Mariupol’s Prymors'kyi district, isolating Ukrainian troops in the port from those in the “Azovstal” plant. Elsewhere, in the south, Ukrainian forces made a small advance towards three Russian-held villages west of Kherson.
April 11, 2022
In the northeast, it was reported that Russian shelling in Kharkiv province over the past day had killed 11 civilians.
In the southeast, Russian forces seized Mariupol’s Sobachyy beach, pushing Ukrainian troops to Mariupolʹsʹkyy beach. By this point, according to the DPR, Russian and DPR forces were in control of 80 percent of the city. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian 36th Marine Brigade reportedly announced on Facebook that it was preparing for “the last battle” in Mariupol, as its ammunition was running out, almost half of its members were wounded, and all of its combat fighters had been killed, with the artillerymen and other support personnel continuing the fight. Further, the brigade stated that a number of proposed strategies for Ukrainian units to break out of Mariupol during March had been ignored by the government. Some sources denied the claims, saying they were false, while others concluded that they were authentic.
The Ukrainian Azov Battalion also made a video statement saying it was running out of food, ammunition, and medical supplies two weeks after it had last been resupplied and reinforced. The government stated that its forces were too weak to attempt an offensive to break the siege of the city, and that even resupplying the besieged troops and retrieving the worst-wounded via helicopters had become impossible due to increasingly-effective Russian air defenses. The statement by the Azov Battalion was made by its deputy commander, Lieutenant Svyatoslav Palamar, who had previously been thought to have been killed in a helicopter downing almost two weeks earlier.
During the night, Ukrainian forces at the “Illich” Steel and Iron Works plant in the Kalmiuskyi district attempted to break out of the Russian encirclement, but were blocked, and the commander of the 36th Marine Brigade, Colonel Volodymyr Baranyuk, was reportedly killed. The Marines split into smaller groups, with some managing to link up with fighters of the Azov Battalion at the “Azovstal” plant the following day (April 12). Around 30 Marines were captured during the breakout attempt.
April 12, 2022
In the north, the civilian death toll in Bucha was updated to 403.
In the southeast, a British man fighting as part of the Ukrainian Marines in Mariupol reported that his unit was surrendering to the Russian military since it did not have enough food, ammunition, or supplies left. Other Marines reported that they would be “holding out to the end”. Subsequently, Russia claimed that 1,026 Ukrainian Marines surrendered, with a Russian journalist reporting that this included around 400 wounded. The number of allegedly captured Marines was later updated to 1,160. The surrender took place at the “Illich” plant in the Kalmiuskyi district. The Azov Battalion commander criticized the Marines who had surrendered, while praising those that managed to link up with their unit.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Donetsk provincial governor claimed that between 20,000 and 22,000 civilians had been killed due to the Russian siege of Mariupol, while the city's mayor also claimed that 21,000 had died. A day earlier, the mayor had estimated that the civilian death toll was at least 10,000 and possibly more than 20,000. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s provincial governor for Luhansk reported that around 400 civilians had been killed in that province since the start of the invasion.
April 13, 2022
In the northeast, it was reported that Russian shelling in Kharkiv over the past 24 hours had killed seven civilians and wounded 22. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s provincial governor for Sumy reported that more than 100 civilians had been killed in the province since the start of the invasion.
In the southeast, Russian forces took control of the “Illich” plant following the Ukrainian surrender the previous day. Russia also announced that its forces were in full control of Mariupol’s commercial port, while they continued to squeeze the pocket of resistance in the coastal area of the Prymors'kyi district with advances from the west and east. Russia said that later during the night, another 134 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered.
In the south, Ukrainian forces attempted to recapture a town southeast of Zaporizhzhia, managing to seize parts of it before they were pushed back with the arrival of Russian reinforcements.
In the evening, Ukraine reported that it hit and seriously damaged the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, the cruiser Moskva, using two Ukrainian-made Neptune missiles. According to Russia, the ship’s crew was instead forced to evacuate after ammunition on board detonated due to a fire, while confirming that the ship was badly damaged. Russia did not acknowledge any attack. Initially, the ship remained afloat and was heading to port for repairs before it sank the next day (April 14) in stormy weather. The cause of the fire on the ship could not be independently confirmed, though a US government official would later endorse Ukraine's version of the story.
April 14, 2022
It was confirmed that the Azov Battalion deputy commander for combat and special training, Vitaly Gritsaenko, had been killed during fighting in Mariupol on March 20.
Elsewhere in the east, Russian forces captured a village northeast of Izium, on a direct supply line between Izium and Kupiansk. Russian troops also advanced through the forest west of Izium.
In the south, it was reported that Ukrainian insurgents had been active since at least mid-March in the Melitopol area, and Ukraine claimed that 70 Russian soldiers had been killed by the insurgents between March 20 and April 12.
April 15, 2022
Possibly in retaliation for the sinking of the cruiser Moskva, Russia struck an anti-ship missile factory in Kyiv that produced the Neptune missiles reportedly used against the ship. Meanwhile, according to Russia, Ukrainian helicopters conducted a cross-border attack against a town in Russia just across the border from Semenivka, injuring seven people.
In the northeast, it was reported that more Russian shelling in Kharkiv killed seven civilians and wounded 34.
In the southeast, Russia announced that it had fully secured the “Illich” plant in Mariupol, while it also seized the base of the Ukrainian National Guard’s 12th Operations Brigade in the Prymors'kyi district. Meanwhile, the commander of Ukraine's 36th Marine Brigade issued an urgent plea for military reinforcements or a political solution to break the siege of Mariupol, while Russia reportedly used long-range bombers for the first time to attack the city.
 Country Short Name: • Russia (English) • Rossiya (Russian) Full Official Name: • Russian Federation (English) • Rossiyskaya Federatsiya (Russian) Capital: Moscow |
Russia conducted another strike in Kyiv, hitting a tank repair factory. Strikes were also conducted in Lviv, Kharkiv, and reportedly on a military repair facility in Mykolaiv. Meanwhile, the civilian death toll in the formerly Russian-controlled town of Borodianka, northwest of Kyiv, was updated to 41 as rescue operations continued.
In the east, Russian forces advanced south of Izium amid heavy fighting, approaching one village, while also bringing another within artillery range. Elsewhere, Russian mechanized reinforcements arrived at Popasne, where fighting was ongoing.
In the southeast, Russian and DPR forces captured the Mariupolʹsʹkyy beach and a nearby police station in Mariupol, encircling Ukrainian forces in the Prymors'kyi district. The ISW also acknowledged that the city’s port was under Russian control. Subsequently, Russia announced that all urban areas of Mariupol had been cleared, with the estimated 2,500 remaining Ukrainian soldiers all located at the “Azovstal” plant. This meant 90 percent of the city was under Russian and DPR control. According to Russia, more than 4,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in Mariupol and 1,464 had surrendered. Footage also emerged of a second Briton captured by Russian forces in Mariupol while fighting with the Ukrainian military.
Russia published images showing around 100 of the Moskva’s crewmembers on parade in Sevastopol, apparently including the ship’s captain, Anton Kuprin, who had been claimed by Ukraine to have been killed. Meanwhile, it was confirmed that at least one Russian sailor had died when the Moskva sank. The sailor’s wife stated that another 27 sailors were missing, though that was not officially confirmed. Later, a pro-democracy Russian newspaper quoted an unidentified mother of a sailor in saying that some 40 crew members had been killed and several more were missing.
Ukraine's government said that between 2,500 and 3,000 of its soldiers had been killed and 10,000 wounded since the start of the Russian invasion, and that 700 of its soldiers were being held as prisoners. It also claimed to be holding 700 Russian soldiers, saying that between 19,000 and 20,000 had been killed. In contrast, Russia reported that Ukraine's “irretrievable losses” since the start of the invasion totaled 23,367. Meanwhile, Russian Major General Vladimir Petrovich Frolov, deputy commander of the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army, was confirmed killed in fighting in Ukraine.
The number of Georgian fighters killed while fighting as volunteers alongside Ukrainian forces reached nine. Three Belarusian fighters (part of the Ukrainian forces) and one Italian and one Serbian (part of the LPR forces) were also reported to have been killed.
April 17, 2022
In the north, a Russian airstrike reportedly destroyed an ammunition factory near Brovary. Elsewhere, in the northeast, Russian shelling in Kharkiv killed five people and wounded 13, while Ukrainian forces recaptured one village northeast of Kharkiv and two east of Chuhuiv.
In the east, Russian forces captured two villages southwest and south of Izium and were confirmed to be in full control of a district northeast of Izium, while in the southeast, a Russian ultimatum calling for the Ukrainian troops in Mariupol’s “Azovstal” plant to surrender was ignored. Meanwhile, fighting was reported to be continuing near Flotskaya street in Mariupol’s Prymors'kyi district.
April 18, 2022
Russian airstrikes on the western city of Lviv left seven people dead and 11 injured. Three military warehouses and a tire repair shop were targeted. More Russian shelling of Kharkiv also reportedly left nine people dead and 25 wounded. Overall, Russia stated that its airstrikes had hit 16 Ukrainian military facilities overnight throughout Ukraine.
In the east, Russian forces were said to have launched their anticipated offensive along a 480-kilometer (300-mile) front to seize the rest of the Donbass region (Donetsk and Luhansk provinces), and captured a town northwest of Rubizhne. Subsequently, Russian troops advanced further west, reaching a village 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the town of Lyman. In addition, the Russian military seized three villages northeast of Izium. This came after the US assessed that Russia had added 11 battalion tactical groups (BTGs) to its forces in the south and east of Ukraine, bringing the total number of BTGs in the country to 76. Each BTG can have up to 1,000 soldiers, and around a dozen BTGs were engaged in the fighting in Mariupol.
In the south, Russian forces made advances around a town east of Zaporizhzhia.
The United Nations confirmed that at least 2,104 civilians had been killed since the start of the invasion, including 79 in territory controlled by the DPR and LPR. In contrast, Ukraine reported that more than 2,500 civilians had been confirmed killed since the start of the invasion, although three days earlier it had reported the confirmed civilian death toll to be at least 2,700.
Stay tuned to PolGeoNow for more updates to this map and timeline as events progress!
Graphics of the Ukrainian flag (source), DPR flag (source), LPR flag (source), and Russian flag (source) are in the public domain.
