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Over a period of 100 days, the city of Kyiv has gone from stubborn normality, through complete darkness, and is now emerging into some sort of calm.

More than half the city’s four million population left as a result of the Russian invasion. But in April, the tide turned.

The Russian retreat allowed Kyiv to claw back some of the reality it had lost. There were no more military checkpoints in central parts of the city.

The past few weeks have seen the city feel as normal as it has ever been. The nights are still silent with a 23:00 curfew, but the day brings more life.

Russia’s Pacific Fleet has launched a week-long series of exercises with more than 40 ships and up to 20 aircraft taking part, Russian news agencies quoted the defence ministry as saying.

The ministry statement said the exercises, taking place from 3 to 10 June, would involve, among other matters, “groups of ships together with naval aviation taking part in search operations for [enemy] submarines”.Questions remain around Moscow’s decision to concentrate so much of its “force and fires” on a single part of the overall campaign.

Looking back at the 100 days since Russia invaded its neighbour, the MoD also reminds people that Vladimir Putin’s original plan – to seize the capital Kyiv and topple Ukraine’s government – has failed.

However, 90% of Luhansk – part of the Donbas region – is now controlled by Russia, the update said. And it is likely Putin will have complete control of the area in the next two weeks