4 March – The country reports its first cases of the Lineage B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the
United Kingdom in two people from
Ivano-Frankivsk.[12]
18 March –
Kyiv MayorVitali Klitschko announces a three-week lockdown in the
city beginning on March 20 which will close all cultural institutions and many non-essential shopping and entertainment malls due to an increase in COVID-19 cases.[14]
31 March –
RussianPresidentVladimir Putin accuses the country of "provoking armed confrontation" with
pro-Russian separatists in the war-torn eastern portion of the country. Putin also said that Ukraine failed to comply with the July 2020
ceasefire of the conflict, which has killed over 14,000 people since it broke out in 2014.[15]
PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy calls on
NATO to hasten the country's accession to the military alliance in response to a growing build-up of
Russian troops and military hardware on its borders, and to help bring an end to the ongoing conflict in the
Donbas with pro-Russian separatists.[17]
7 April
Russia warns that having the country join
NATO "would exacerbate the Donbas conflict" after Ukraine urged NATO to "speed up" its membership application.[18]
12 April – The country triggers Article 15 of the Charter on a Special Partnership, initiating an emergency meeting with
NATO to discuss the Russian escalation in
Donbas and the build-up of Russian forces on its
border. The article was last triggered in 2018 during the
Kerch Strait incident.[22]
15 April – The country protests an alleged announcement by
Russia that, beginning next week, it would be closing the
Kerch Strait to foreign warships and state ships until October.[23]
22 April – The
Russian Defense Ministry announces that it will move
its forces away from the
Ukrainian border beginning tomorrow. The country and its western allies accused
Russia of trying to provoke conflict by moving troops to the border, while Defense Minister
Sergey Shoygu claimed that it was only to conduct drills.[26]
23 April – A
United Nations aid convoy brings 23 tons of humanitarian aid to the region around
Donetsk, passing the contact line into separatist-controlled territory at the
Novotroitske crossing point.[27]
June
23 June – The country reports its first two cases of the
SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in a woman and a teenager who travelled from
Russia.[28]
28 June – The country and
NATO forces launch joint naval drills in the
Black Sea codenamed Sea Breeze 2021.
Russia has condemned the drills, with the
Russian Defence Ministry saying that they would closely monitor the drills.[29]
July
2 July –
Belarus closes its
border with the country after President
Alexander Lukashenko claims that arms are being smuggled into the country in an attempt by "outside powers" to overthrow his regime, saying that "They have crossed the line. We cannot forgive them". Ukraine denies Lukashenko's claims, and says that closing the border would make its people "suffer".[30]
9 July – The
Ministry of Defence accuses Russia of hacking the website of the
Naval Forces to publish fake news and upload false documents regarding naval drills between Ukraine,
NATO, and most
Black Sea nations.[32]
15 August – Konstantin Pavlov, the pro-
Russian mayor of
Kryvyi Rih, is found dead at his home with a gunshot wound. The
National Police say that they are currently establishing the circumstances of the mayor's death and have also opened a criminal case.[35]
26 August – A
mass grave containing between 5,000 and 8,000 skeletons is discovered in
Kyiv, during exploration works for a planned expansion of
Odesa International Airport. The graves are believed to date back to the late 1930s during a major
purge.[36]
September
17 September – The country and the
United States announce that they will begin joint military exercises involving 15 other countries in western Ukraine next week.[37]
27 September –
Hungary and
Russia sign a
natural gas supply deal which will see
Gazprom supply Hungary with 4.5 billion cubic metres of gas annually via
Serbia and
Austria for the next 15 years. The gas pact is criticized by the country, which argues that it is a "purely political, economically unreasonable decision". In response, Hungarian Foreign Minister
Péter Szijjártó accuses Ukraine of "meddling" in its internal affairs.[39]
22 October – The country closes schools and public venues in
Kyiv and will only permit the schools to reopen if teachers are vaccinated in other "red zone" areas after the country reported a record for the second consecutive day of 29,785 new cases and 614 deaths from COVID-19.[42]
Ukrainian troops regain control of the village of Staromaryivka in the so-called "grey zone" between Ukraine and the
Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), according to DPR Foreign Minister Natalya Nikonorova.[45]
November
1 November –
Kyiv begins to require
vaccine certificates or negative
test results in order to enter restaurants, cafés, gyms, entertainment facilities and shopping malls as well as to use public transportation in an attempt to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases.[46]
4 November – The country surpasses three million cases of COVID-19 after reporting a record 27,377 new cases in the past 24 hours.[47]
8 November – The country's oldest
English language newspaper the Kyiv Post suspends publication after 26 years in print following a dispute between its owner and journalists. All of the newspaper's journalists have been fired with immediate effect.[49]
11 November – The country deploys a further 8,500
soldiers and police officers, as well as 15 helicopters, to the
border with
Belarus to prevent possible attempts by stranded migrants to cross into the country in order to reach the
European Union.[50]
16 November
British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson states that the west will have to choose between reliance on Russian gas and supporting Ukraine amid reported buildups of the Russian military near the border with the country.[51]
Researchers at the American
cybersecurity firm
Mandiant report that the
Belarusian government has ties to the hacker group
Ghostwriter, which was accused of targeting various
German politicians and ministries in September and has since been accused of launching misinformation campaigns against multiple countries, including Ukraine.[52]
18 November –
Belarus suspends electricity supplies to the country, in "accordance with the established procedure for interaction within the framework of contractual relations", according to a statement from the Belarusian Ministry of Energy.[53]
23 November – The country warns of "combat preparedness" of
separatist forces in
eastern Ukraine as the
Russian military presence on
the border increases, warning of a potential new conflict. The separatists began mobilization of reservists yesterday.[54]
24 November
Britishforeign secretaryLiz Truss warns
Russia that any attack on the country would be a "grave mistake", and that the UK is working closely with its
NATO allies to provide support to Ukraine.[55]
13 December – One-hundred and six members of a
Ukrainian "
neo-Nazi" youth group are arrested in
Russia, suspected of planning attacks, including
mass murders.
Russia has accused Ukrainian intelligence of financially funding the group. Ukraine alleges that the arrests and subsequent Russian media reporting are staged as part of Russian intelligence measures.[63]
17 December –
Russia demands that
NATO never admit the country as a member of the military alliance, among other measures, saying that they want a legally binding guarantee to end
further eastward expansion. Other demands include a Russian veto on
Ukrainian membership in NATO, the removal of U.S.
nuclear weapons from Europe, and the withdrawal of multinational NATO battalions from
Poland and the
Baltics.[64]