The Chonhar Peninsula bordering Crimea was under Russian control until December 2014; the Ukrainian military began fortifying it the following year, placing explosives on several bridges in the area, though most of these failed to detonate on the first day of the invasion.

[26] Ukrainian plans called for Operational Command South, under Major General Andrii Sokolov, to be assigned two brigades of 3,000-5,000 men each, and a battalion of 500 troops stationed directly on the border with Crimea.

[33][34] Combat engineers of Ukraine's 137th Battalion were ordered to destroy a bridge connecting Henichesk with the Arabat Spit, in an attempt to slow the advance of Russian troops from Crimea, allowing the Ukrainians to retreat and regroup.

[78] Local volunteers and Ukrainian soldiers were able to repel Russian troops from Voznesensk the next day, forcing most of them to retreat 40 miles (64 km) to the east and others to flee into nearby forests, where ten of them were later captured.

[88] The next day, the Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russia deployed a battalion of the Baltic Fleet's 336th Naval Infantry Brigade toward Mykolaiv.

"[89] Heavy shelling hit Mykolaiv during the evening, causing several fires, and Vitaliy Kim reported "active hostilities" near Hur'ivka [uk] north of the city.

[94][95] A Ukrainian official stated that the Russians were deploying Grad missiles and warned of an attack on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is located in the city.

[98] On the morning of 25 February, Russian units from the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) advanced towards Mariupol and were defeated by Ukrainian forces near the village of Pavlopil.

[99][100][101] By evening, the Russian Navy reportedly began an amphibious assault on the coast of the Sea of Azov 70 kilometres (43 mi) west of Mariupol.

The siege of Mariupol began the next day, as the Russian attack from Crimea moved east, linking the front to separatist-held regions in Donbas.

[123][124] A video later emerged showing local civilians preventing a Russian convoy from entering Enerhodar by barricading the entrance, forcing them to leave.

During the heavy fighting a fire broke out in a training facility outside of the main complex, which was quickly extinguished,[141] though other sections surrounding the plant sustained damage.

[12] On 11 March, Governor Kim stated that Ukrainian forces had pushed Russian troops eastwards by 15–20 kilometres (9.3–12.4 mi) and had also surrounded some units who were negotiating for a surrender.

[166] On 17 March, the Ukrainian military reported that Russian forces achieved "minor successes" in attacks towards Kryvyi Rih, capturing the village of Mala Shestirnia [uk].

[177] On 27 March, Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Olha Stefanishyna, stated that Mariupol "simply does not exist anymore," and that Russia's objectives have "nothing to do with humanity."

[180] On 3 April, following the retraction of Russian forces from Kyiv at the end of phase one of the military invasion, Russia expanded its attack on southern Ukraine further west with increased bombardment and strikes against Odesa, Mykolaiv, and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

[186] By 10 April, Ukrainian forces had made significant advances and pushed back the Russian military in the area around Kherson, gaining ground at Osokorivka and Oleksandrivka.

[11] Russian forces were said to be preparing second and third lines of defense, fortifying airfields, ports and railway stations, and mining the coast of the Kakhovka Reservoir in anticipation of a Ukrainian counterattack.

[196][197] On 10 June, Oleksiy Arestovych, an advisor to Zelenskyy, claimed that shelling on a Russian base in Stara Zburivka [uk] killed two generals, one of whom was preparing a referendum in Kherson Oblast.

"[199] On 12 August, UN Secretary-General António Guterres asked for a demilitarized zone to be created around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after shelling struck an area used to store radioactive material.

Ukrainian officials claimed that the strike killed the chief of staff for the 22nd Army Corps, Major General Artyom Nasbulin, along with five colonels and a total of 150 soldiers.

[218] In December 2022, following previous successful counteroffensives, speculation among Western analysts and media about a prospective Ukrainian campaign to retake Crimea abounded.

In the event of such an offensive, observers and analysts suggested Ukraine could attack along the Zaporizhzhia front and advance towards the strategic city of Melitopol to cut Russia's "landbridge to Crimea."

[220] On 23 December, Ukraine's mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov said the Russians were transforming the city into a fortress, replete with dragon's teeth defenses.

[220] Meanwhile, satellite imagery showed that Russian troops had established trenches around the perimeters of Tokmak in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, considered a strategic city on the approach towards Melitopol.

[229] By December 2023, prominent Ukrainian figures and Western analysts began giving negative assessments of the success of the counteroffensive; statements by Ukrainian general Valerii Zaluzhnyi in early November 2023 that the war had arrived at a "stalemate" were seen by observers as an admission of its failure,[230] and followed more definite assessments made by analysts, especially with regard to operational success, from several weeks earlier.

[238] War analyst Emil Kastehelmi stated to The New York Times that the village with its recapture "lacks strategic importance to Russia and is now little more than ruins", but however, that it was still "a symbolic blow to Ukraine after fighting so hard to win it back last year".

[242] Russian forces meanwhile restarted combat operations around Kamianske in western Zaporizhzhia Oblast, advancing near the village and the neighbouring Plavni, following a reported unsuccessful Ukrainian attack.

[282] Bombs, and the pollutants that came from them, killed nearby dolphins, and opened the sand and soil to the threat of chemicals seeping in and invasive species, according to the research and policy director at the UK-based Conflict and Environment Observatory Doug Weir.

[283] In May 2022 a 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) fire, started by rockets, inflicted lasting habitat damage to the perennial forests and salt marshes of the spit.