At the outset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, no one from Washington to Brussels would have bet on the army’s success Kyiv. Nobody but Valery Zalushnyithe Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who for the past two months has been leading their extraordinary resistance to the brutal offensive of to fly. The strategist behind all of Kiev’s military successes is 48 years old and was appointed to his current role by President Volodymyr Zelensky in July last year to rejuvenate the Ukrainian armed forces. “We need to move away from the map war, from …. 1943style battles,” Zaluzhnyi said in an interview two years ago. Ironically, the general is instead fighting an enemy seemingly born out of World War II.
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David versus Goliath
The resistance of the Ukraine can therefore be classified as a success, which highlights a reconnaissance strategy thanks to which David drives Goliath to the ropes: a smaller state manages to outlive a larger and much more powerful one. “Battles reveal more than they decide. The battles in which the outcome is truly winnable are rare, and the battles that prove crucial in achieving a political goal are even rarer,” observes Phillips Payson O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the magazine. The Atlantic”. at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. “Instead, the fighting demonstrates how effectively the combatants planned, prepared and executed before the fighting began. The outcome of a fight not only shows how good the parties are, but also how they are War it could take place in the future. In this sense, the result of the battle of Kyiv it was never questioned. The preparations of Russia and Ukraine for the military challenge essentially determined the outcome. But the battle for Kyiv reveals much about why Ukraine fared much better in the war than many analysts had predicted.
General Saluzhnyi, the “Indestructible”
And that’s also up to Commander Valeriy Zalushnyi. Born into a military family, childhood in his mother’s hometown Chernihiv, as a child he dreamed of becoming even a simple soldier and today he is the “iron general” or “indestructible” as he is called in his homeland, where he is already considered a hero. Zaluzhnyi embodies a generation of military leaders who have been preparing for an allout war against Russia since 2014 Donbass and when not on the frontlines, they were training with NATO forces in Europe. Out of these experiences has emerged a group of military professionals who, in recent weeks, have managed to oust Moscow’s armed forces with a more agile, decentralized and creative style of warfare, without the rigid Soviet approach of their predecessors.
Calibrated strategy
“How and why the Ukrainian armed forces exceeded expectations is perhaps the most important story of this war,” he said Professor O’Brien. The Ukrainian war mode is a coherent, intelligent, and wellthoughtout strategy for fighting the Russians, well calibrated to exploit specific Russian weaknesses. It allowed the Ukrainians to maintain their mobility, helped force the Russians into static positions for long periods of time by making their logistics more difficult, forced the Russians to suffer heavy attrition losses, and in the Battle of Kyiv, resulted in a victory that led to the restatement of the political end to the Russian invasion. Russia’s initially maximalist attempt to take over all of Ukraine was drastically downgraded to a much more limited attempt to seize areas in the east and south of the country.
The most important points
Here are some of the basic characteristics, O’Brien explains, that have shaped the army’s style of warfare in Kyiv and across the country. First, to counteract and limit air supremacy over the battlefield; then prevent the Russians from taking control of many cities, which complicates the enemy army’s communications and logistics; then forcing the Russian forces to scatter through the streets in columns difficult to carry; finally attack these columns from all sides.
Ukrainian mobility
“Breaking Russian air superiority is the basis of Ukrainian success. If control of the skies is not granted, Ukrainian forces can maneuver while Russian forces become nervous that they could face a Ukrainian airstrike. The Russian Air Force is too large, and the Russian Armed Forces are well equipped with antiaircraft systems but the plan of Kyiv made life difficult for the invaders. The Ukrainian military prevented Russia from gaining control of Ukrainian airspace by combining a number of systems, including a small number of MiG aircraft highly effective fixedwing aircraft, advanced antiaircraft systems and a plethora of manportable antiaircraft weapons such as Stinger missiles. Russian planes can bomb Ukrainian positions, but they managed to maintain mobility of their forces, turned their cities into fortresses and checkpoints, making Russian logistics and communications difficult.
Basic wins
In a lengthy announcement of Ukraine’s victory in the Battle of Kyiv, the Defense Ministry noted that the capital was “largely saved by heroic combatants in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions.” These two cities straddle important road systems running northeast to Kyiv, and both cities have resisted. By keeping control of these cities and almost every other one near the borders Russia and Belarus, the Ukrainians made it impossible for Russia to move troops by rail into the heart of Ukraine. Russian troops can still travel by road, but bypassing Ukrainiancontrolled cities forces them to take longer and more complicated routes. And among other things, these positions remaining in Ukrainian hands also serve as a base for attacks behind Russian lines.
snoring in the mud
Having complicated the logistics of the Russians, the Ukrainians, advancing, were able to attack and hit them on the roads. Among other things, the military is invading the country this season to fly They had to advance on small paved roads to avoid the muddy terrain where the Bliandati would (and are) bogged down. And this further restricted their freedom of movement. With their enemies in such vulnerable positions, the Ukrainians then launched attacks on long Russian columns. Attacks take various forms, including airstrikes (the most prominent being drones Bayraktar Made in Turkey), special forces, longrange artillery.
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Losses from Ukraine’s attacks thwarted Russian attempts to gather enough forces to storm Kyiv. Although the Russians attempted to advance along three different road systems, from Sumy, Chernihiv and the northwest, Ukrainian resistance prevented them from building up enough strength to encircle, let alone attack, Kyiv. All three lines of attack have now been closed and Russian forces are in retreat. And that is why Putin continues to gather as many people as possible around the world who can hold guns, as the Ukrainian president said in recent days. Zelensky during a speech in Parliament. “Russia sent all the forces of its army from its entire territory to the Far East to take over Ukraine, but that was not enough. For this reason, it gathers as many people as possible who can bear arms to continue the aggression against Ukraine, searches for mercenaries worldwide and sends militants of various de facto terrorist groups and socalled private armies created by some Russian officials. Among those captured by our army were very experienced killers, not even twenty years old. Maybe even minors.
“Light” but winning weapons
Instead of directly attacking Russian heavy formations of large tanks and artillery, the Ukrainians have used small and maneuverable weapons to exploit Russian weak points since the beginning of the war. With small arms operated by small squads of soldiers, they routinely knocked out Russian tanks and trucks. This has not only weakened Moscow’s ground forces, but also lengthened its logistical lines, leading to major fuel and ammunition supply problems: the number of Russian vehicles left intact but without fuel is surprisingly high.
Strategy versus technique
“By using light forces in this way, the Ukrainians have shown that even in conventional warfare, a smaller force can engage and even blockade a larger and more technologically advanced enemy,” notes O’Brien. The Ukrainians didn’t make the mistake of overestimating the Russians, but they haven’t won the war yet. With the defeat at the Battle of Kyiv, the Russians have begun concentrating in eastern and southern Ukraine, hoping to create a defensive belt that Ukrainians must attack if they hope to regain lost territory. And the Ukrainian army will have to continue the easy war of attrition. And that probably won’t bring the war to a quick end, but it does offer the potential to weaken Russia’s political and military will, allowing Ukraine to achieve many of its goals in the negotiations.
help from the west
But everything is in the hands and mind of the general Zalushnyi. Who, unlike American “Star” generals Norman Schwarzkopf who led American troops in the first Gulf War and David “The King” Petraeus hero of the Iraq war doesn’t like the international limelight he bequeathed to President Zelenskyy at the start of the war . Hardly any interviews since February, hardly any public appearances, she only communicates with posts on her Facebook account. Some are brief operational updates, others are thank you messages to Ukrainian doctors, troops and people. “Ukraine’s armed forces are the shield of Europe,” he wrote on March 22. “The price of freedom is high. Remember that! A week later.
And again on April 2: «Ukrainians have forgotten that they are afraid. Our goal is to win ». The last, longer post is from April 3 and relates to his phone call with the US Joint Chief of Staff, Mark Milley. To the US general, the Ukrainian commander expressed gratitude to Kiev for the support, but reiterated his request for more military support. “With the help of the West, we can eliminate evil. Because we don’t want what happened in Ukraine to happen in Europe as well: the killing of women and children, the demolition of infrastructure,” he wrote “the indestructible,” affirming that the forces he led were “ready be to eliminate evil”. Humanity has the opportunity to live in peace. I hope that the whole world is aware of this ».
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