We like to be precise with our content and not cash in on the
ongoing conflicts, so instead of spamming your timelines with hot takes constantly,
we decided to take our time and summarize the continuing Russian invasion of Ukraine
with monthly videos. This conflict will enter history as pivotal both historically,
and in terms of military science, so we will have more to say over the next while. For now,
allow us to present to you our video on the first phase of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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In October 2021, the Russian army started a build-up on the Russia-Ukraine and
Belarus-Ukraine borders. The Kremlin explained it with planned military exercises, brushing aside
all the concerns and declaring that they had a right to move their forces wherever they deemed
necessary within their borders. But soon, the United States started asserting that the massing
of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border was a build-up for an impending invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian government vehemently denied this, while some NATO states and Ukraine considered
the US reports exaggerated. Nevertheless, by December, Russia started making demands: for
NATO to guarantee that Ukraine would never join the organization; that Alliance would withdraw
its forces from countries that joined the alliance after 1997; that NATO would stop its expansion;
that NATO would seek agreement with Russia for any activities in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Caucasus,
and Central Asia. Naturally, the United States and its allies rejected these proposals. Despite the
Russian assurances and attempts of Western leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron to find
common ground, the tensions continued growing. On 17 February, forces of the unrecognized
Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics and Ukraine accused each other of shelling.
Unrecognized governments of Donetsk and Luhansk ordered the evacuation of their populations.
On 21 February 2022, the Russian president Vladimir Putin made a threatening speech,
questioning Ukrainian statehood and calling it a Bolshevik-created entity.
On the same day, Russia became the first country to recognize the so-called Donetsk People’s
Republic and Luhansk People’s republic, justifying this step by claiming that a genocide had been
committed by the Ukrainian government and neo-nazi groups against Russian-speaking people in Donbas.
In the early morning of 24 February, Putin announced the start of the special military
operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine. A military conflict in Ukraine,
which started in 2014, turned into a full-scale war with the invasion of Russia.
According to different estimates, Russia deployed 150k to 200k troops out of total active personnel
of approximately 900k, along with up to 40 thousand separatists from Donetsk and Luhansk,
later joined by a few thousand troops from Syria and separatist republics of Abkhazia and Ossetia.
It is safe to assume that most of the best Russian troops were deployed to Ukraine. At the same time,
the rest of the active personnel are mostly conscripts stationed throughout vast Russia.
The Russian army divides into Battalion Tactical Groups (BTG), which are autonomous military units
consisting of infantry, armored and unarmored military vehicles, artillery, field hospitals,
and so on. According to the latest pre-invasion figures provided by the official US sources,
Russia amassed approximately 120 BTGs on the border with Ukraine. BTGs usually have 600-1000
infantrymen, are supposed to have 10 tanks, and between 40 and 70 other armored vehicles.
This allows us to estimate that 1200 tanks and 4800 to 8400 other armored vehicles
are being used in the Russian expeditionary force if all BTGs are equipped by the book, which is
rarely the case, especially in an army known for vast corruption and poor administration. According
to the IISS Military Balance, Russia possesses 1391 military aircraft and 544 attack helicopters,
but it is impossible to know how many of them Russia is exactly using in the war in Ukraine.
The same source shows that Ukraine has active personnel of approximately 200k
troops, more than 3k armored vehicles, 132 military aircraft, and 55 helicopters.
Since Ukraine has declared general mobilization and armed volunteer Territorial Defense,
we could assume the actual number of people resisting the invasion is way higher.
Moreover, thousands of volunteers joined Ukraine’s international brigade. While talking about the
comparison of forces, it is necessary to note that the Ukrainian army has come a long way since 2014.
The army has been significantly modernized. Its military arsenal is much better, as the
United States, United Kingdom, Turkey, and others have provided Ukraine with anti-tank weapons like
NLAW and Javelin, anti-aircraft missile systems such as Stinger, along with TB2 Bayraktar drones.
The Russian offensive started with a massive shelling and airstrike campaign throughout Ukraine
with more than 100 missile strikes to destroy the Ukrainian military infrastructure, bases,
anti-aircraft missile systems, arms depots. The later events demonstrated that Russia
failed to achieve its goal, as the Ukrainian military infrastructure, albeit heavily damaged,
managed to mostly stay intact. This was followed by a ground offensive in four general directions.
The Northern Offensive by the Russian troops deployed in Belarus towards the capital Kyiv.
The Eastern Offensive from Belgorod towards Kharkiv. The Donbas (Southeastern) Offensive
from the territories controlled by pro-Russian separatists and Voronezh
towards the Ukrainian-controlled territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. The Southern
Offensive from Crimea towards Kherson, Mykolaiv, and ultimately Odesa. It looks like the Russian
strategy was to rapidly advance towards major urban centers, taking large cities like Kyiv,
Kharkiv, Odesa as soon as possible to break the morale and resolve of the Ukrainians
and force the government to capitulate, along with ensuring the land connection between the
separatist-ruled part of Donbas and Crimea, and securing the whole Black Sea shore of Ukraine.
These 4 offensive axes were supposed to merge after securing advances along the frontline
to make pincer and envelopment movement more possible. The exact political endgame of the
Russian offensive still puzzles analysts with claims ranging from installing a pro-Russian
puppet government to dividing Eastern Ukraine into several pro-Russian states.
The Ukrainian defense strategy was to orderly withdraw to urban centers
while fighting advancing Russian forces, bogging them down in urban warfare,
ambushing and attacking their supply lines. It would be illogical for the Ukrainian army
to defend all the terrain along the whole of the massive front, given the Russian advantage
in firepower. The analyst Michael Kofman calls this tactic trading space for time.
On the first day of the invasion, Russia made the most significant advance on the Southern Front,
where the 58th Combined Arms Army (CAA) advanced for about 60 kilometers pushing the Ukrainian 57th
Motorized Brigade back and taking the North Crimean Canal and reaching the outskirts of
Kherson. On the Northern Front, the 35th CAA took Chernobyl and the Chernobyl power plant,
while the 36th CAAs pushed towards the capital Kyiv bypassing Chernihiv. The Ukrainian 1st Tank
Brigade managed to halt the Russian advance, as it failed to capture the city of Chernihiv.
The 41st CAA’s advance towards Kyiv from Sumy was also halted in the outskirts of Sumy by the 56th
motorized brigade. The Russian airborne attack on the Hostomel Airport near Kyiv by the elite
31st Guards Air Assault Brigade of the Russian VDV (elite Airborne Army) also failed after the
Ukrainian counter-attack. The rapid capture of Kharkiv did not happen either as the 1st Guards
Tank Army could not break the resistance of the Ukrainian 92th Mechanized Brigade.
The advance of the Luhansk Militia and the Russian 20th CAA towards Severodonetsk met
the resistance of the Ukrainian 53rd Brigade with heavy fighting around the town of Schastya. The
elements of the 8th CAA and the Donetsk Militia pushed the 54th Mechanized Brigade towards the
Northwest from the Ukrainian-“DNR” line of contact and the 56 Motorized Brigade towards the East
along the Black Sea shore with heavy fighting around Mariupol, but failed to reach its
overall goals of taking over the rest of Donetsk oblast and breaking the Ukrainian resistance.
On 25 February heavy fighting on all fronts continued. The Russian troops forced their
way into Obolon mere 9 kilometers away from the Ukrainian Parliament building.
The 95th Air Assault Brigade and the 72nd Mechanized Brigade were there to protect Kyiv.
At this point, the United States even offered Ukrainian President, Zelenskyy to leave the
capital, to which he reportedly replied: “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride”.
The threat to the capital was real, as during his speech to the nation he called the Ukrainians to
brace for an offensive and urged them to prepare for a hard battle for Kyiv.
Zelenskyy’s refusal to leave and insistence to fight against the odds turned him into a hero
and the symbol of the Ukrainian resistance, further mobilizing Ukrainian society and
galvanizing the international community to adopt crippling sanctions on Russia,
such as disconnecting several major Russian banks from SWIFT. But the situation continued
to be difficult for the Ukrainians. The American intelligence predicted that the fall of Kyiv
would happen within 96 hours. Even though the Russians failed to capture Sumy, they continued
their march towards Kyiv from there, advancing to Romny. On the Southern Front, Russians developed
their success by capturing Novo Kakhovka and moving closer to securing Kherson and Melitopol.
Taking Melitopol was essential to continue the march along the Black Sea shore to merge
with Russian and separatist units trying to take Mariupol, along with advancing towards
Zhaporizhie, which could have encircled the Ukrainian units fighting on the Donbas front.
In Kharkiv and Donbas, the situation remained more or less stable, and there were even reports
of the Ukrainian counter-offensives pushing back the Russian units to the border in Milove.
February 25 was also the day when the defenders of the Zmiinyi Island, south of Odesa,
famously responded to the Russian demand of surrender: “Fuck off, Russian military ship!”.
On February 26, the Russian army mostly used special forces and airborne troops to fight
the Ukrainian defense in Kyiv. With the 36th CAA giving up on the rapid capture of Chernihiv
and bypassing it to move towards the capital, it looked that other Russian units around Kyiv
waited for its arrival to strike Kyiv with massive force. Similarly unable to take the city of
Kharkiv with a direct assault, the 1st Guards Tank Army divided into two groups to bypass the city
to possibly envelop the Ukrainian units in the city or move towards Kyiv.
The situation in the Southeastern Donbas front remained relatively stable as well.
The Russian troops and separatist militia captured the port of Berdiansk and the Berdiansk Airport.
DPR separatists also claimed to capture Pavlopol and Pischevik, while LNR separatists also claimed
to seize Lopeskyne and Markivka. Russia continued its advance on the Southern front.
The 42nd Guards Motor Rifle Division of the 58th CAA of the Russian army
continued fighting in Kherson, while also sending units toward the city of Mykolaiv.
Other elements of the 58th CAA were engaged in fighting to seize Melitopol,
along with advancing towards Enerhodar and the Zaporizhian power plant in the north.
Oleksiy Arestovych, the advisor to the Ukrainian president, admitted on February 27 that Ukraine
lost control over the whole of Berdiansk. Prevailing in Kherson and Melitopol, capturing
Henichesk and Kherson Airport meant that the Russian offensive on the Southern front developed
its success, increasing the threat on Mykolaiv and Odesa in the West and Mariupol in the East.
First reports of the Russian army merging its offensives in the Southern and Southeastern
Front around Mariupol also emerged on that day. But the continuing assault on Zaporizhzhya,
namely on Enerhodar, Vasylivka and Tokmak meant that the 58th CAA, the most successful unit of the
Russian war effort so far, had to fight in three different directions, dividing its resources.
On other fronts the situation remained more or less stable as Russia made small gains such as
the capture of Kupyansk, the encirclement of Konotop, but the 41st CAA’s attack on Pryluky
and the 1st Guards Tank Army’s attacks on Kharkiv and Okhtyrka were repelled. By now, it had become
clear that the strategy of causing collapse of the Ukrainian defense by rapid mass offensive on major
Ukrainian cities had failed, as the Ukrainian army not only remained functional in the cities,
but also managed to harass Russian supply lines and inflict major losses on the Russian manpower
and military vehicles. In response to the Western sanctions and failure to rapidly
defeat the Ukrainian resistance, Putin ordered Russia's nuclear forces on high alert. The valiant
defense of Ukraine caught the West by surprise, as contrary to almost unanimous expectation of the
fall of Ukraine, the Ukrainian army remained a force capable of defending the country.
As a result, for the first time in history, the EU announced direct military aid to a
foreign country - Ukraine, while Germany made a major turn in its foreign policy by sending
weapons to Ukraine and stating its intention to dramatically increase its military spending.
But Russia still possessed major resources sufficient to defeat Ukraine. On February 28
satellite images of a 64-kilometers long massive column of tanks, military vehicles, and artillery
moving from Belarus towards the western part of Kyiv were shared on social media. Along with that,
in the Kyiv front, elements of the 41st and 36th CAAs moved to bypass Sumy and Chernihiv to merge
with an aim to make a push toward East Kyiv. Presumably, the overall goal was to attack Kyiv
from a number of directions, but the maintenance of a formidable force by Ukraine in Chernihiv and
Sumy oblasts caused a major threat to the extended supply lines of the Russian army.
Elements of the Ukrainian 1st Tank Army conducted defensive actions against the 41st and 36th CAAs
stalling the Russian advance in Nizhyn. Along with maintaining a solid defense around Kyiv,
the Ukrainian forces also engaged in pointed counter-attacks, such as in Makaryv
and Borodyanka. In Donbas heavy battles around Volnovakha, Starobilsk and Mariupol continued.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine set a defensive line between Chuhuiv and Balakliia, preventing Russians from
encircling Kharkiv and moving towards Poltava and Dnipro. Numerous reports of heavy shelling
of civilian areas in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and other cities of Ukraine continued. Also, the
first death of a Russian general in the war was reported, as the deputy commander of the 41st CAA
Major General Andrey Sukhovetsky was allegedly killed. On a diplomatic front, as expected the
first round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Belarus did not bring any positive results.
The first day of March brought several setbacks to the Ukrainian defense.
Reports of capture of Kherson and Melitopol meant that now the 42nd Motor Rifle Division
was free to move towards Mykolaiv, while other units of the 58th CAA engaged in Melitopol
could join the attack on Mariupol from the West, making the encirclement of the city a real threat.
Reports of the Belarusian army joining the Russian offensive were not confirmed.
On March 2, the Western intelligence sources reported that Russia was switching its military
tactic from head-on offensive on cities to attritional war, wearing down the Ukrainian
army by continued assault on its defensive lines and shelling of Ukrainian cities to break
the morale of the population as the overall pace of their offensive remained well below
expected. Ukrainians report reclaiming of Horlivka by the forces of the 96th Air Assault Brigade and
Makariv by defenders of the Kyiv perimeter. During the next few days both sides claimed taking Irpin,
Bucha and Hostomel, towns in the vicinity of Kyiv, capture of which was crucial for the success of
the Russian campaign in Kyiv. It indicates that heavy fighting was going on around this area,
but these reports also stipulated that the Russian attacks were mostly carried out by
1 or 2 BTGs at the same time, which was interpreted by military experts
as inability of the Russian army to carry out coordinated attacks by a large number of units.
Another point of the Russian offensive in the Kyiv front was Brovary, but the attempts to
push back the Ukrainian army by the 41st and 36th CAAs were repelled. Within the next several days,
these unsuccessful attacks would continue. On other fronts Russia took Balakliia,
repelled the Ukrainian counter-attack on Horlivka and engaged in heavy battle to
take the Mykolaiv airport on March 3. But possibly the biggest gain of the Russian army on this day
was the capture of Svatova, which is situated between Kharkiv and Luhansk, by the 6th CAA
and by the Luhansk militia. This allowed the Russian Eastern and Southeastern axis to link.
The only positive result of the second round of negotiations was the agreement to open
corridors for civilians stuck in encircled cities like Sumy, Chernihiv and Mariupol.
On 4-6 March Russia made important gains on several fronts. In the South,
the 58th CAA took Enerhodar and the power plant in the vicinity, along with Tokmak and Vasylivka.
There were also reports of successful Russian advance on the Mykolaiv airport
and heavy fighting in the Mykolaiv oblast, which was defended by the 57th motorized brigade.
Along with that, the 6th CAA and Luhansk separatist forces started attacking Izium
and Severodonetsk. The fall of these cities could have been disastrous for Ukraine, as it could have
possibly allowed the Russian units to encircle the 56th Motorized Brigade and other Ukrainian
units fighting in Donbas. Heavy fighting was reported along the Chuhuiv-Balakliia line, which
the Ukrainian defense managed to withstand. They were not as successful at the Nizhyn-Pryluky line,
as Russians were able to penetrate it pushing within 20kms of central Kyiv from the Northeast.
The Russians also managed to encircle Okhtyrka. On March 7, Ukraine managed to reclaim the
Mykolaiv airport and Chuhuiv. The massive tank column in the west of Kyiv still threatened
the city, but no significant fighting or movement in that direction was reported.
This was also the day when the first international volunteers joined the defense of Kyiv. In the
South, Russia repeated its tactic of bypassing the cities, which it failed to take with a head-on
assault, as the 7th Guards Mountain Air Assault Division bypassed Mykolaiv towards Voznesensk.
The aim was to force the Southern Bug river and advance on strategically crucial Odesa.
On March 8 Russia took steps to solidify its encirclement of Mariupol,
by capturing the highway between the city and Volnovakha, while also moving elements of the
41st CAA to the Sumy oblast to strengthen its extended and constantly attacked supply lines.
On March 9-12, the Ukrainian 1st Tank division managed to repel the Russian offensive by the 90th
tank division and 55th motorized rifle brigade on Chernihiv, along with establishing a connection
with the pocket of resistance in Nizhyn. Heavy battles continued in Izium and Severodonetsk.
Russian offensives on Brovary by the 6th Guards Tank Regiment, on Hadyach by the 4th
Guards Tank Division, and on Krivyi Rih by 7th Guards Mountain Air Assault Division were also
successfully repelled. But the Ukrainian situation around Mariupol continued to deteriorate,
as the Russian forces and Donetsk separatists moved into portions of eastern part of the city,
along with taking Volnovakha. The infamous tank column in Northwest of Kyiv
by now had dispersed and redeployed elsewhere. The most important event of 13-16 March was the
ballistic strike at the Yavoriv training center near Lviv, as the Russian Defense Ministry claimed
that 180 “mercenaries” were killed in this strike on the base, where training of foreign volunteers
was conducted. By these dates it had become quite clear that Russia had stalled in all directions
and was unable to conduct any major offensive operations anywhere, but Donbas.
While the Russians made some gains in Izium and pushed around Rubizhne, the Ukrainian offensive
towards Kherson pushed the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division and reached the town of Posad-Pokrovske.
The Ukrainians also broke the encirclement of Okhtyrka.
On 19-20 March reports of Russian troops digging trenches and deploying minefields around Kyiv
indicate that Russians had given up on offensive operations to take the capital and prepared for
a defensive war. On March 21-24 Ukraine gained ground around Kyiv by counter-attacking towards
Bucha, Vorzel, Moshchun, Makaryv, and Irpin, while Russia made progress in Izium and Mariupol.
On 25-29 March, Ukraine capitalized on low morale and poor supply of the Russian army
and made considerable progress on several fronts. The Ukrainian army solidified its successes on the
Kyiv front by pushing back the 37th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade and the 31st Guards Air
Assault Brigade from Irpin and the 90th Tank Division further away from Brovary and reclaimed
Lukyanivka. In the Sumy-Kharkiv axis, the 93rd Brigade took back Trostyanets, Boromlia, and Mala
Rohan, and end the encirclement of the city of Sumy, forcing the 27th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade
to withdraw to Russia for presumed redeployment in Donbas, where Russia still had a capability
to launch successful offensive operations and made some gains around Izium, Severodonetsk,
along with capturing more of Mariupol putting the Ukrainian defense of the city in an even more
desperate situation. On the Southern front, the Russian offensive had completely stalled as well.
On 30 March, reports of withdrawal of several Russian units from the Kyiv axis started to
emerge, whether due to heavy losses or as a part of a campaign to deescalate military operations
around Kyiv. Along with that, redeployment of Russian units, such as the elements of the 20th
CAA and the 1st Guards Tank Army to Belgorod for replenishment to presumably later send
them to the Donbas front continued. During the next couple of days,
we witnessed several instances of fighting on the Northern Front with Ukrainian success and then a
complete withdrawal of Russian units from Kyiv and Chernihiv oblasts. The 35th, 36th, and 41st CAA
made an orderly withdrawal towards Belarus, while reports of redeployment of the 90th tank division
and 2nd guards motor rifle division to the Donbas front emerged. On April 2, the Ukrainian Defense
Ministry stated that Ukraine was now controlling all of the Kyiv Oblast. On April 4, the governor
of Zhytomyr Oblast also stated that the region was now completely under Ukrainian control.
By April 5, there were no Russian troops left in the Chernihiv Oblast either. Ukraine prevailed in
the Northern Front and the Battle of Kyiv against all odds. But Russian loss came at a very high
price for the Ukrainian military, infrastructure, and particularly, the civilian population. As the
Ukrainian army reclaimed Bucha, it witnessed horrific scenes of hundreds of civilians lying
dead on its streets. Satellite images taken on the days, when the Russian army still controlled
this town, prove beyond reasonable doubt that this massacre was indeed committed by Russia.
Ukraine also staged counterattacks in Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts. On 31 March,
they liberated Malynivka, Vesele, Zelenyi Hai and other towns in the Zaporizhia oblast, along
with several towns and settlements in the Kherson oblast, including Novovoronstovka on 1-2 April.
But around the same dates, Russia continued very slow, but steady progress in Donbas,
as they claimed to capture Zolota Nyva in the Donetsk oblast and Zhytlivka in the Luhansk
oblast. On April 1, Ukraine admitted that Russia was able to capture Izium
after days of heavy fighting. But arguably, the most important event of this day
was the Ukrainian strike on a fuel storage depot in the Russian city of Belgorod,
which was the first incident of spillover of the war in Ukraine to the Russian territory.
On April 4, reports of the advance of the Russian forces from the Kharkiv axis towards Slovyansk
started emerging. According to various military experts, capture of Slovyansk created options
to link up with the Russian units fighting in Rubizhne, or advancing towards Horlivka, both of
which carried a potential risk of encirclement for the Ukrainian units on the Donbas front.
By 5 April, elements of the 1st Guards Tank Army, including the elements of the 2nd GMRD, 4th GTD,
47th GTD, the 106th GAD, the 144th MRD and the 3rd MRD were redeployed to Izium and we can expect
most of the Russian offensive operations to be conducted along the Donets River,
which the Ukrainian 25th Airborne Brigade and the 81st Air Assault Brigade will try to defend.
The presidential aide Orestovych noted in his interview that the Ukrainian army faces 8 to 1
numerical disadvantage on this axis. On 6 April it was confirmed that the Russian army completed its
withdrawal from the Sumy oblast too. These forces were to be redeployed in Donbas too. Lastly,
the situation of the Ukrainian units in Mariupol was getting increasingly more desperate. According
to British Intelligence, by April 7 Russia already controlled 76% of the city. But it is also
reported that the Russian units participating in the siege of Mariupol are suffering heavy losses
amid fierce resistance by the Azov battalion and units of the regular Ukrainian army.
In the run-up and on the first few days of the war, almost everyone expected a quick Russian
victory and the collapse of the Ukrainian army. It was only a question of when. But
the Ukrainian army has defied the odds by standing tall and more recently prevailing
in the Battle of Kyiv and reclaiming some of the lost territories in other regions.
Despite the overwhelming advantage in firepower, bad planning by the Russian command manifested in
an inability to conduct major offensive operations in the coordination of a large number of units
and different branches of the military; poor logistical preparation was demonstrated by images
of incapacitated military vehicles due to lack of fuel and insufficient food supplies proved by the
Russian looting of civilian stores; low morale, the clear indicator of which is scores of Russian
servicemen, particularly conscripts surrendering to Ukrainians, since they don’t really understand
what they are fighting for and are just completely unprepared to the brutality of war;
inability to ensure air domination despite the huge numerical advantage in military aircraft
has made the Russian war effort in Ukraine to go horribly wrong.
Around Kharkiv and South of Ukraine, the Russians have been pushed back as well.
The only axis, where Russians and pro-Russian separatists can hope to gain any
considerable success is the Southeastern front. The Russian General Staff has stated in late March
that its main focus is on the so-called “liberation” of Ukrainian-controlled territories
of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, since it remains the only front, where Russians can realistically
hope for success. Russia continues to employ the tactic of shelling cities,
including civilian areas causing the death of 1611 civilians, according to the UN. Mariupol, Kharkiv,
Sumy, and other cities have been heavily damaged. Millions of Ukrainians have fled their country.
Both sides have suffered heavy losses, but Ukrainians have inflicted way more damage on
Russians than was expected. By April 7 Oryx military analysis blog visually confirmed
Russian losses at 448 destroyed or abandoned tanks; 750 armoured vehicles, 20 fighter jets,
32 helicopters, and three navy ships, against Ukrainian losses of 95 tanks,
under 200 armoured vehicles, 18 aircraft and helicopters, and 15 ships. According to the NATO
estimates of 29 March, 7k-15k Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine. The US sources
reported on 9 March that 2k-4k Ukrainian soldiers were killed during the invasion.
Soon we will summarize the second month of this conflict, which proved to be not the
Short Victorious War Vladimir Putin hoped for, but a war of attrition that could change the fate of
the entire region, so make sure you are subscribed and have pressed the bell button to see it.
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