The territory of present-day Ukraine has been either invaded or occupied a number of times throughout its history.
List
| Conflict | Invasion | Attacking force(s) | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' | Siege of Kiev (1240) | Mongol Empire | 1236–1242 | The Mongol Empire invaded and conquered Kievan Rus' in the 13th century, destroying numerous southern cities, including the biggest ones: Kyiv and Chernihiv.[1] |
| Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe | Crimean Khanate | 1450–1769 | According to Ukrainian-Canadian historian Orest Subtelny, "from 1450 to 1586, eighty-six raids were recorded, and from 1600 to 1647, seventy. Although estimates of the number of captives taken in a single raid reached as high as 30,000, the average figure was closer to 3000...In Podilia alone, about one-third of all the villages were devastated or abandoned between 1578 and 1583."[2] In 1769, the last major Tatar raid, which took place during the Russo-Turkish War, saw the capture of 20,000 slaves.[3] | |
| Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) | Battle of Konotop (1659) |  Tsardom of Russia | 1659 | Ukrainian Cossacks led by Ivan Vyhovsky repelled an invasion by the Russian Tsardom at Konotop.[4]: 144 |
| Ukrainian War of Independence (1917–1921) | First Soviet invasion of Ukraine Battle of Kruty Battle of Kiev (1918) |  Russian SFSR | 1918 | Initial fighting in the war (Ukrainian–Soviet War) lasted from January to June 1918, ending with the Central Powers' intervention.[4]: 350, 403 |
| Central Powers intervention in Ukraine |  German Empire Austro-Hungarian Empire | Imperial German and Austro-Hungarian forces entered Ukraine to push out Bolshevik forces, as part of an agreement with the Ukrainian People's Republic.[4]: 351, 357 Occupation: Ukrainian State (1918), a German-installed government of much of Ukraine. | ||
| Allied intervention in Ukraine |  French Republic Kingdom of Greece Kingdom of Romania | 1918–1919 | Failure: Allies evacuate | |
| Second Soviet invasion of Ukraine | Russian SFSR | 1919 | A full-scale invasion began in January 1919.[4]: 361 Ended with the invasion by the White Army. | |
| White invasion of Ukraine |  South Russia | White Army captures Donbas, Kharkiv, Odesa, Kyiv. Ended with the invasion by the Red Army. | ||
| Third Soviet invasion of Ukraine | Russian SFSR | 1919–1920 | Red Army captures Kharkiv, Kyiv, Donbas and Odesa. | |
| World War II (1939–1945) | Hungarian invasion of Carpatho-Ukraine |  Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946) | 1939 | The Kingdom of Hungary occupied and annexed the just-proclaimed Carpatho-Ukraine. The Governorate of Subcarpathia (1939–1945) region included her former territory. |
| Soviet invasion of Poland (Ukrainian Front) |  Soviet Union | The Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939, extending into Western Ukraine.[4]: 454 Occupation: After the Soviet annexation of Eastern Galicia and Volhynia, the Soviet Union occupied Western Ukraine until it fell to Nazi Germany in November 1941. They retook the land in 1944.[5]: 625 | ||
| Operation Barbarossa |  Nazi Germany | 1941 | Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, including Ukraine,[4]: 453, 460 in June 1941 with assistance from allied Romania.[6] By November they controlled almost all of what had been Soviet Ukraine, including the portion annexed in 1939.[5]: 624 Occupations:
| |
| Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–present) | Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation | Russian Federation | 2014 | Russia invaded and subsequently annexed Crimea, then administered by Ukraine as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, during February–March 2014,[7][8] and also took control of part of the village of Strilkove in neighboring Kherson Oblast.[9] Occupation: The Republic of Crimea and federal city of Sevastopol (2014–present), claimed by Russia as federal subjects and considered an occupation by the government of Ukraine (as part of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine) and by the United Nations.[10][11] |
| War in Donbas | 2014–2022 | After a commencement of hostilities in April 2014, Russian forces invaded the Donbas region of Ukraine in August of that year.[12][9] A report released by the Royal United Services Institute in March 2015 said that "the presence of large numbers of Russian troops on Ukrainian sovereign territory" became a "permanent feature" of the war following the invasion,[13] with regular Russian and Ukrainian forces coming into direct conflict at the Battle of Ilovaisk[14][15] and likely the Battle of Debaltseve.[16] Low-intensity fighting continued through 2022, despite the declaration of numerous ceasefires. Occupation: The Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic (2014–2022) were breakaway states in eastern Ukraine that were supported by Russia. | ||
| Russian invasion of Ukraine | 2022–present | Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.[17] Occupation: Russia occupied over 25% of Ukrainian territory before being pushed back in counteroffensives. Russia unilaterally declared that the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts were annexed into the Russian Federation (2022–present). |
