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. And with a look at the war’s beginning, we can
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MagellanTV via our link in the description. 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
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Hello /u/Willsie777,
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I wish people wouldn’t talk about the different “phases” of this war. “Phase” is the word Putin uses. These are not “phases”. This is Russia randomly throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. Is there a word for that? I dunno. But let’s not resort to using Putin’s terminology.
Putin had Plan A, which was to quickly take Kyiv, take out Zelinskyy, and install a puppet Government. And Plan B? There was no Plan B. When Plan A failed catastrophically, Russia was fucked. And they’ve been trying to make it up as they go along.
“Phase” implies an orderly plan, progressing from one step to the next. That’s why Putin talks about “phases” and claimed that they moved on to other phases after successfully completing the initial phase.
He takes Russian claims too seriously
That's a great summation thusfar. While I'm more worldly than what one typically thinks of for a Yank, I'm still pretty ignorant of the Ukraine geography and layout, plus there's been a LOT of data about the war. This video has been hugely helpful for an outsider!