300 days of war in Ukraine: from lightning operation to fierce resistance

The Russian military campaign in Ukraine, designed as a lightning operationshot this tuesday 300 days before the fierce resistance of the Ukrainian troops, who frustrated the plans of the Kremlin and managed to recover part of the territory occupied by the Muscovite troops.

The only major achievement of the Russian army in almost ten months of fighting was creating a corridor of land towards the peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, through the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the southern regions of Zaporizhia and Kherson.

The corridor, of strategic importance, could be, according to Western military experts, the target of an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive after that of Kharkov, in the north-east of the country, and the one that ended last October with the resumption of Kherson, the capital of the homonymous region, in the south of the country.

Zelensky visits the front

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky visited Bahmut, a city in the Donetsk region, a hundred kilometers from the border with Russia, which has been subjected to incessant attacks by Russian forces all this time, where he spoke with soldiers and bestowed decorations.

Zelensky said Bakhmut remains the “hottest spot” on the entire 1,300-kilometer front line.

“I think Bájmut’s heroes should have the same as other people. I wish their children and families were well, that they had heating, health. I wish they had light, that is cut off, the situation “is complex. But the important thing is that there is (light) inside” the people, the president said on Tuesday.

Putin also gives decorations

Almost simultaneously, Russian President Vladimir Putin was also handing out decorations, but at a ceremony in the Kremlin.

Among those honored were prominent servicemen in the campaign in Ukraine and were also, among others, Moscow-appointed leaders in Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, annexed last September.

The campaign was launched on February 24, according to Putin should “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine, and that the Kremlin-linked media presented the first day as practically a “military promenade”, has become a major challenge for Russia, which has even questioned the capability of its army.

The resistance presented by Ukraine, supported by the West It revealed the shortcomings of Russian troops in a conventional war campaign, since they were unable to take control of the entire territory of the annexed regions.

Putin’s calls the day after his troops entered Ukraine to the Ukrainian army to depose Zelensky had no effect and revealed a lack of knowledge of the situation in the Armed Forces of the neighboring country, which closed ranks around their supreme commander.

Ukraine makes up for it and Russia changes tactics

As the weeks went by and the arrival of modern Western weapons, the Ukrainian army managed to stabilize the situation on the fronts and to stop the offensive of Russian troops on Kyiv, which had to withdraw, a retreat which was presented by Moscow as a “gesture of goodwill”. “.

Subsequently, retreats to the east and south were added, followed by a radical change of tactics by Russia: Since October, it has begun massively attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with rockets and drones, depriving millions of Ukrainians of electricity, heat and water.

“Now there is a lot of noise about our attacks on the energy infrastructure of the neighboring country (Ukraine). Yes, we do. But who started it? Who attacked the Crimean bridge, who blew up the high tension at the Kursk nuclear power plant, who doesn’t supply water to Donetsk?” Putin declared on the 8th with reference to Ukrainian actions.

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