The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, 2022, was the expansion of a war between the two countries that had begun in February 2014, when disguised Russian troops covertly invaded and took control of the Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea. In the following months, Russian troops and local proxies seized territory in Ukraine’s Donbas region, resulting in ongoing fighting in eastern Ukraine that killed more than 14,000 people prior to Russia’s 2022 invasion.