Almost 2 years in, here’s where Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stands

Nearly two years into the war, Russia on Friday launched its “most massive aerial attack” on Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials said Russia launched 122 missiles and 36 drones against Ukrainian targets, killing at least 30 civilians and injuring more than 140.

Damage was reported in the capital Kyiv, the central city of Dnipro, the western city of Lviv, the southeastern port of Odesa and the eastern city of Kharkiv.

The 18-hour barrage brought the war back into focus for many, including CBC readers who want to know where the conflict stands.

Here’s a look at some key areas.

Front line

Fighting along the front line is largely bogged down by winter weather after Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive failed to make a significant breakthrough along the roughly 1,000-kilometre line of contact and alter the momentum of the war.

Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander in chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, penned a frank assessment of the battlefield conditions for the Economist last fall that suggested the war was sliding toward a stalemate.

In May, Russian forces took Bakhmut, a city in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, after months of brutal urban combat and heavy causalities on both sides.

The toll on the Russian side was so severe that it prompted a mutiny by the Wagner private military company, which eventually led to a short-lived march on Moscow and later the death of Wagner’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Though the strategic value of Bakhmut is debated, it held much symbolic value for Ukraine as an example of the country’s resistance to the invasion and served as Russia’s biggest military gain since the early days of the war. 

Much of the focus since has been in nearby Avdiivka, about 90 kilometres south of Bakhmut. As of Dec. 21, Russian forces advanced to within two kilometres of the city at an estimated cost of nearly 20,000 casualties.

Avdiivka is seen as a gateway to Donetsk city, an occupied city about 15 kilometres south whose residential areas Russian officials say have been regularly shelled by Ukrainian forces. Pushing Ukrainian forces out of Avdiivka would be seen by Russia as enlarging the amount of territory it controls, while also making Donetsk city safer.

WATCH | Why Ukraine’s counteroffensive has stalled: 

Why Ukraine’s counteroffensive has stalled

Six months into Ukraine’s much-anticipated…