It’s been over a year since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A year of pain, destruction and bloodshed – Hundreds of thousands killed and millions more displaced from their homes. But it wasn’t supposed to be like this. According to a research by the think tank RUSI, when Vladimir Putin began his invasion, he expected to take control of Ukraine within 10 days. So what went wrong? Why did his plan fail? And how close did he come to succeeding?

To find out, we spoke to Ed Arnold, Research Fellow, European Security at RUSI, to uncover what went wrong for Russia during those crucial first 10 days of the conflict.

Notes - Unit movements are illustrative

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SOURCES
RUSI study on the early phases of the War in Ukraine - https://rusi.org/explore-our-research...
ISW Interactive time-lapse of Russia's war in Ukraine - https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/...

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CREDITS
Russian military footage by Mil.ru - CC BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Kremlin footage by Kremlin.ru - CC BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Ukrainian footage by Armyinform.com.ua - CC BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Volodymyr Zelenskyy at COP 26 by President.gov.ua - CC BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Vladimir Putin photograph by Kremlin.ru - CC BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Location map of Ukraine by NordNordWest. CC BY-SA 3.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Maps by https://freevectormaps.com