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Introduction
On February 24, 2022 Russia launched a full invasion of Ukraine which is ongoing and has resulted in the displacement of millions of Ukrainians, the indiscriminate slaughter of thousands of civilians including children, and extensive damage to infrastructure and cultural heritage. On March 2, 2022, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution demanding that Russia “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.” “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.”[1]
[1] https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/03/1113152
NATO Research Guide
The Russian Invasion of Ukraine – Special Focus
United Nations Background Documents
The UN and the war in Ukraine: key information
UNRIC Library Backgrounder: Ukraine
The Development Impact of the War in Ukraine (UNDP, March 16, 2022)
Other Background Briefings and Documents
UK Parliament House of Commons Library Research Briefings Ukraine Crisis
Recent reports cover a wide range of topics falling under military action and its implications, humanitarian situation, the international response, as well as relevant historical papers.
Institute for the Study of War Backgrounder
ISW is a "non-partisan, non-profit, public policy research organization.” Provides daily campaign assessments as well as the regularly updated Russian Campaign Offensive Assessment.
“This anthology consists of articles written by a number of researchers and analysts at the Swedish Defence Research Agency, FOI... ranging from security policy and strategic studies to radar signatures, electronic warfare, and chemical and biological weapons.”
“This Report is an assessment of the present dynamics of the fighting in Ukraine, how Russia is employing its capabilities and what is needed to defeat Russia’s invasion. It is based on fieldwork conducted in Ukraine prior to and during the invasion.”
Chronology of the War
Chronicle of the War (National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War)
War Chronicles (Ukrainian World Congress)
Government of Ukraine
War in Ukraine: Official Website (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine)
Provides background to the war as well as regular updates.
Daily addresses and speeches to world bodies by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ministry of Defence of Ukraine Updates
Updates are provided multiple times per day.
Government of the Russian Federation
President of Russia (The Kremlin, Moscow)
Meeting with State Duma leaders and party faction heads (The Kremlin, Moscow, July 7, 2022)
News Sources
Ukrainian English Language News Sources
International News Sources
Council on Foreign Relations Conflict Tracker - Ukraine
UK Ministry of Defence Intelligence Update on the Situation in Ukraine (daily updates)
Conflict Maps
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment (Institute for the Study of War)
Produced by the Institute for the Study of War and AEI's Critical Threats Project. Updated daily.
"A crowdsourced effort by Centre for Information Resilience, Bellingcat, Conflict Intelligence Team, Advance Democracy and the wider open source community to map, document and verify significant incidents during the conflict in Ukraine."
"Live Universal Awareness Map (“Liveuamap”) is a leading independent global news and information site dedicated to factual reporting of a variety of important topics including conflicts, human rights issues, protests, terrorism, weapons deployment...from a vast array of sources."
War Crimes and Human Rights Violations
“On 2 June 2022, the Delegations of 45 OSCE Participating States, after consultations with Ukraine, invoked the OSCE Moscow Mechanism under paragraph 8 of the Moscow Document to “consider, follow up and build upon the findings of the Moscow Mechanism report received by OSCE participating States on 12 April 2022” addressing “the human rights and humanitarian impacts of the Russian Federation’s invasion and acts of war, supported by Belarus, on the people of Ukraine, within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders and territorial waters.””
“This report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) covers violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law that have occurred in the course of the ongoing armed attack by the Russian Federation against Ukraine... and is based on the work of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.”
An Independent Legal Analysis of the Russian Federation’s Breaches of the Genocide Convention in Ukraine and the Duty to Prevent (May 2022) (New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human RIghts)
“This report comprises an independent inquiry into whether the Russian Federation bears State responsibility for breaches of the Genocide Convention in its invasion of Ukraine and concludes there are: 1) reasonable grounds to conclude Russia is responsible for (i) direct and public incitement to commit genocide, and (ii) a pattern of atrocities from which an inference of intent to destroy the Ukrainian national group in part can be drawn; and 2) the existence of a serious risk of genocide in Ukraine, triggering the legal obligation of all States to prevent genocide.”
A Mission of three experts was appointed by Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on 14 March 2022 with a mandate to: “establish the facts and circumstances surrounding possible contraventions of OSCE commitments, and violations and abuses of international human rights law and international humanitarian law” and “establish the facts and circumstances of possible cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including due to deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure; and to collect, consolidate, and analyze this information with a view to presenting it to relevant accountability mechanisms, as well as national, regional, or international courts or tribunals that have, or may in future have, jurisdiction.”
Online Archive of War Crimes (Government of Ukraine)
“Together with partners, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has created an online archive to document Russia’s war crimes."
"On February 26, 2022, Ukraine filed an application at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to initiate proceedings against the Russian Federation under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Ukraine seeks to address Russia’s groundless claims that genocide has occurred in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts of Ukraine and establish that Russia has no lawful basis to take military action on the basis of those false claims. Ukraine has also requested the ICJ exercise its authority to indicate provisional measures to preserve Ukraine’s rights and limit the ongoing and irreparable harm to the Ukrainian people as well as Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders." (https://www.state.gov/ukraines-filing-against-russia-at-the-international-court-of-justice/)
Office of the High Commissioner United Nations for Human Rights: Ukraine
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) was deployed in 2014. It now operates at the invitation of the Government of Ukraine to monitor, report and advocate on the human rights situation in the country, with a particular focus on the conflict area in eastern Ukraine and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, occupied by the Russian Federation. Since 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation began its armed attack on Ukraine, the Mission has been closely monitoring its impact on human rights across the country. OHCHR issues daily civilian casualty updates.
United Nations Human Rights Council Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine
On 4 March 2022, the Human Rights Council decided to urgently establish an Independent International Commission of Inquiry, comprising three human rights experts, to be appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council for an initial duration of one year. The latest update was issued on 18 October 2022.
Provides regular reports on human rights issues as well as the country report Ukraine: Events of 2021.
A central hub to capture, analyze, and make widely available evidence of Russia-perpetrated war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine. “Combining open-source information with very high-resolution satellite imagery,” Yale HRL (Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab) presents “the most comprehensive public assessment to date of this large-scale apparatus of screening and extrajudicial detention.”
Amnesty International - Russia’s War on Ukraine: All the Latest Updates
“As of August 22, the total amount of damage to Ukraine's economy from the damage and destruction of residential and non-residential buildings and infrastructure (in monetary terms) increased to $113.5 billion."
Post Verified: Eyewitness Videos (Washington Post Staff, Updated November 11, 2022)
Database of 231 Verified Videos Exposes the Horrors of the War in Ukraine.
Tracking Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons
Ukraine Refugee Situation Data Portal
"UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has activated a portal that contains the latest statistics on refugee arrivals from Ukraine to major receiving countries."
“Based on 4,900 interviews with refugees from Ukraine conducted by UNHCR and partners... this regional report presents the main findings relating to refugees’ profiles and intentions, aiming to establish a baseline which will be periodically updated to monitor and analyse trends and changes in the situation in a timely manner.”
Migration Data Portal: Crisis Movements ((IOM)International Organization for Migration, 6 July 2022)
“An overview of currently available data on people on the move from and inside of Ukraine: refugees, Third Country Nationals (TCNs), IDPs, vulnerable groups on the move, and data on missing migrants.”This
“Between 17 and 27 October the International Organization for Migration (IOM) conducted the tenth round of a rapid representative assessment of the general population in Ukraine to gather insights into internal displacement and mobility flows, and to assess local needs."
"As a part of CrisisReady’s ongoing effort to share relevant data and insights during the crisis in Ukraine, our research team is publishing data map analyses showing the evolving changes of population densities along the western border of the country...These data maps provide important insights on the displacement dynamics and the changing dispersal patterns of Ukrainian refugees."
Humanitarian Situation
World Health Organization Ukraine Emergency Situation Reports
Weekly reports providing information relating to population displacement, public health concerns and WHO actions in Ukraine.
Updates on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care (SSA): Ukraine (World Health Organization)
"The Who's Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care (SSA), launched in December 2017, is the main mechanism for collecting primary source data of attacks on healthcare in countries with complex humanitarian emergencies. Its methodology allows the cataloguing of attacks and provides data based on a level of certainty for each incident."
Tracking Impact on Agriculture, Global Food Supply, Trade and Development
Measuring War’s Effect on a Global Breadbasket (NASA)
“NASA Harvest researchers are using satellite observations and economic data to track how the Russia-Ukraine conflict is disrupting the global food system.”
“The war that began on 24 February 2022 has caused extensive damage and loss of life in major cities in Ukraine, spread across rural areas and sparked massive population displacement... It is clear that the war has resulted in a massive, and more deteriorating, food insecurity situation, disrupted livelihoods during the agricultural growing season in Ukraine, and has also affected global food security.”
The Ukraine War and Threats to Food and Security (Chatham House Research Paper, 13 April 2022)
Tracking Damage to Cultural Heritage
Destroyed Cultural Heritage of Ukraine (Government of Ukraine)
Updated regularly by the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, details cultural heritage damaged or destroyed. Listed by category, location and century. Includes detailed maps and photos.
Government of Ukraine Database of War Crimes against Cultural Heritage in Ukraine
The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine continues to record Russian war crimes against Ukraine's cultural heritage. "The materials can be used as evidence for the criminal prosecution of those involved in crimes under Ukrainian law at the International Criminal Court in The Hague and a special tribunal after its establishment."
Ukrainian Cultural Foundation “Chronicles of the Cultural Front”
Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, a state-owned institution, launches interactive Map of Cultural Losses. According to preliminary estimates, over 150 monuments and cultural sites were partially damaged or completely destroyed as a result of a full-scale Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
Impacts to Cultural Heritage in Ukraine (Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab (CHML)) (July 15 2022)
“This report summarizes confirmed impacts to cultural heritage sites due to the armed conflict in Ukraine between February and June 2022...The Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab (CHML), a partnership between the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH) and the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (SCRI), has monitored and recorded impacts to cultural heritage sites across Ukraine throughout the ongoing conflict.” Methodology for the confirmation process relies on analysis of high-resolution commercial satellite imagery.
Archival Collections Relating to the Conflict
Ukraine Conflict (Collected by Internet Archive Global Events)
"This collection seeks to document conflict in Ukraine. Content includes news outlets, social media, blogs and government websites." Archived since February 2014.
The Ukraine Crisis: 2014-2015 (Collected by University of California Berkeley)
Tracking Aid to Ukraine
“The Ukraine Support Tracker lists and quantifies military, financial and humanitarian aid promised by governments to Ukraine between January 24, 2022 and currently through October 3." Covers 40 countries.
Tracking Sanctions against Russia
Russians Sanctions Database (Atlantic Council)
“Tracks the level of coordination among Western allies in sanctioning Russian entities, individuals, vessels, and aircraft – and show where the gaps still remain.”
The latest sanctions and actions taken against Russia by countries, major companies and organisations.
Companies Are Getting Out of Russia, But Sometimes at a Cost (New York Times, October 14, 2022)
“Under pressure from investors and consumers, many Western companies have started to unwind their investments, close stores and pause sales in Russia.”
Over 1000 Companies Have Curtailed Operations in Russia - But Some Remain (Yale School of Management, November 7, 2022)
“Over 1,000 companies have publicly announced they are voluntarily curtailing operations in Russia to some degree beyond the bare minimum legally required by international sanctions – but some companies have continued to operate in Russia undeterred.”
How Russia Pays for War by Lazaro Gamio and Ana Swanson (New York Times, October 30, 2022)
“International trade with Russia boomed this year, even as countries imposed sanctions after the Ukraine invasion. As restrictions take effect, Moscow’s alliances have been shifting.”
Tracking Russian Military Casualties
Data about the casualties sustained by the Russian military in Ukraine using "publicly available reports – including social media posts by relatives, local media reports, and local authorities’ statements...The number of soldiers missing in action or captured is unknown.”