Yesterday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced strikes on the command posts of three Ukrainian brigades with various tasks in the Donetsk People’s Republic: near the city of Avdiivka, the 72nd mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the town of Uglispurochnaya and the 102nd regional defense brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Malinovsky district of the Donetsk People’s Republic, except 92 artillery units in firing positions, manpower and military equipment in 118 districts. “In the Kherson direction, and during the fighting over the past 24 hours, two self-propelled howitzers of the Akatsia model and one howitzer of the Msta-V model were destroyed, and also four ammunition depots belonging to the regional defense brigades. Kherson, in Dudchany and Pereslavl.
In an extensive report by Agence France-Presse, the war in Ukraine has undergone many changes in the year since the conflict began: we have moved from the stage of the Russian invasion, which should have led to the rapid occupation of the capital Kiev. , to a long trench-like war behind this change in the form of conflict. Major battles marked the first year of this bloody struggle in the heart of Europe.
Initially, on February 24, 2022, the Russian army launched a military operation against Ukraine, the first goal of which was to quickly capture the capital Kiev, but a year later the conflict bogged down and Ukraine was able, especially thanks to Western military support, to return part of the lands that Russia occupied at the beginning war. In fact, Russia’s failure to achieve its core goals did not happen overnight.
To learn about the major battles of the Ukrainian war that brought the opposing forces to the current field situation, France 24 interviewed two military experts, Gustav Grisel, who specializes in Russian military matters at the European Council on Foreign Relations, based in Berlin. and Sim Taek, a military analyst at Force Analysis, a conflict management company.
Sky battle (Early days of war)
At the beginning of the conflict, observers believed that “Russia’s ability to achieve a quick victory in the war would depend on the degree of its control over airspace, as well as on how to successfully invest (this control),” recalls Gustav Grisel. , and this German expert explains that Moscow has failed to expand its control over the airspace, and that this failure has “terrible consequences for the rest of the conflict.”
In turn, Gustav Gressel notes that the Russians followed the first rule of achieving air supremacy well, using widespread electronic countermeasures to confuse Ukrainian air defenses in order to make it easier to bombard targets such as air bases or defensive facilities, but Gressel adds here that the Russians “forgot to dwell on the results of the bombing, not knowing then that they had already caused great damage, but with little destruction.
Grisel continues that the Russians were in a hurry at the time, as they brought in ground troops when the air campaign had not yet been completed, with the result that the Ukrainian forces were able to reorganize themselves and their air defenses.
Battle for Kyiv (February 24-25)
Advancing on the Ukrainian capital on February 24, the Russian army tried to surprise the enemy Sim Tak says: The failure of this strategy demonstrated “the ability of the Ukrainians to quickly organize an effective defense, even when they are taken by surprise.”
As Gustav Gressel explains, the Russian attempts to seize the Antonov (Gostomel) airport, which began on February 24, symbolize this battle for Kyiv: “They[русские]sent special forces into the air in helicopters, which were supposed to join the forces deployed on conventional aircraft. And also to be supported by Russian mechanized units advancing from Belarus.
However, the Ukrainians managed to repulse the transport planes, isolating the forces that arrived by helicopter, Gustav Grisel explains: “Although the tanks were moving quickly, they were not fast enough to get to these parts in time,” says Sim. Tak argued that Russia’s failure to cross the Bug River south of Voznesensk, northwest of Kherson and Nikolayev, and turn south “embodied the end of the Russian hope of capturing Odessa.”
Battle for Kharkov (until May 12)
The city of Kharkiv, located about forty kilometers from the Ukrainian-Russian border, is considered a very important lock that Moscow must pick: “It is a base city that allows under its control to quickly reach large areas in central Ukraine,” so the Russians believe. Trial Kharkov was captured on February 24, but even there the Ukrainian defense held out for several months, despite intense Russian air bombardment.
Sim Tak adds: “This battle proved that the Russian army faces difficulties in urban environments, especially in large cities such as Kharkov. They faced one of the most difficult combat conditions. Even the United States has not found a magical solution to urban combat. “
And Sim Tak adds that the Russian failure is actually more surprising, especially after Moscow sent “some elite units that were lacking elsewhere on the front” to Kharkov.
Siege of Mariupol (until May 20)
Sim Tak explains that control of the coastal city of Mariupol, south of Donetsk, was Russia’s main goal, since “control of it allowed Russia to find a link between the conquered Donbass and the Kherson region”, but the battle for Mariupol took much longer than Moscow. expected as the Russians began to occupy the port. Then they went to the city center and had to destroy one pocket of Ukrainian resistance after another.
The siege of the Azovstal plant, where the last Ukrainian fighters were holed up, was a symbol of a merciless battle, as was the last chapter of this battle, which the whole world was watching, Sim Tak explains: was not enough.”
Battle of Izyum and the Donets River (March-September 2022)
Sim Tak says: The clashes for control of the Donets River are like “a major battle that determined the course of the war,” and he believes that it was an important natural line of defense separating the Ukrainian north from other regions in the south.
Unsuccessful attempts to cross the river did much to stagnate the front, whether through the Izyum in March or at various other crossings between this city south of Kharkov and Lysichansk. From this point on, the conflict in Ukraine took the form of a Position War, not a War of Movement. These repeated failures by the Russians are also reminiscent of the “strength of geography” factor. Even with modern military equipment, the process of crossing the river remains very difficult and requires perfect coordination According to Sim Tak, the Russians learned about it at their own expense, losing a large number of people and equipment while trying to cross .
On the walls and benches of Moscow silent calls for peace
Small paintings on the walls, or tapes hung here and there before they were removed, or covert acts of vandalism. power on opponents of the invasion of Ukraine.
Today we can’t distance ourselves! Write, speak, do not keep silent about the war!” This call can be read, carved with a knife on the snow-covered wood of a public bench in the center of the Russian capital, such words entail harsh prison terms for their owners.
Others quickly scribbled “#NetVoïne,” “No to war,” in Russian, on the walls of a large city, in defiance of a ban on the use of a description of the war for the Russian intervention launched on February 24, 2022, which the Kremlin calls the “Special Military Operation.”
The authorities censor so severely that even those posters calling for “world peace” that appear on the doors of the Moscow metro can be considered an act of vandalism, sedition or an attempt to defame the army.
Even more mysterious are those green ribbons that can be seen tied to tree branches, fences or lampposts, what does this have to do with the conflict? Green is the result of mixing the yellow and blue colors of the Ukrainian flag.
These are small acts of resistance that would seem absurd if many Russians were not in jail, like Alexandra Skochilenko, who was arrested in April 2022 for exchanging pacifist slogans for product labels in a St. Petersburg supermarket and faces a ten-year prison term. year of imprisonment.
Russian reservists who refuse to fight… between flight and flight
After Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military mobilization last September, hundreds of thousands of reservists who are civilians received their summons, but many ignored the call, some of whom remained in hiding in Russia, while others fled from it, and in his military man in the service book appears Dmitry, who is a pseudonym. He assigned him as a reservist in the Russian army, which gave him priority in the draft campaign to join Russian forces and fight in Ukraine.
Thus, a young man stuck in his own country has been living under the threat of arrest for four months. In an exceptional gesture, he agreed to tell his story to Agence France-Presse on the condition that his name not be revealed and without mentioning his location in Russia.
And when hundreds of thousands of civilian reservists were ordered to be drafted at the announcement of military mobilization, an unknown number of them chose not to respond to the call like Dmitry, and some preferred to flee Russia, so as not to risk being sent to the front, since there is no guarantee that they will be released on medical grounds. Or professional, and people who cannot or do not want to leave must come up with other tricks to avoid forced conscription or imprisonment, and this is the case of Dmitry, who considers the Russian attack on Ukraine “an act of barbarism and an absolute crime” .
Israeli Foreign Minister visits Ukraine for the first time
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen announced yesterday that he arrived in Kiev during the first visit of an Israeli minister to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion almost a year ago, and Cohen tweeted: “I came to say: Israel is ready Ukraine and Ukrainians in these difficult times “.
Shortly after arriving in Kyiv, Cohen visited Bucha, a city northwest of the Ukrainian capital that has become a symbol of the atrocities that Ukraine accuses Russia of committing.
He also tweeted: “I went to Bucha, which is a suburb of Kyiv and was badly damaged at the beginning of the war. We cannot remain indifferent to these heavy images and stories of atrocities that I have heard here.” stressing that “Israel condemns any deliberate attack on innocent people.”
Agence France-Presse correspondents note that the Ukrainian army cordoned off the object, preventing access to it.
