It’s more than a month since Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. What was supposed to be a lightning operation to capture key cities and enforce regime change in Kyiv has turned into a bloody war of attrition. As experts have noted, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has bitten more than he can chew.
His bigger and better equipped Russian military is still struggling to make headway against determined Ukrainian forces. Thousands of fighters have been killed on both sides so far as Ukrainian civilians and cities continue to bear the brunt of much of the violence, in part to Russia’s stalled military advances.
Meanwhile, seeing that Ukraine wouldn’t just be a simple ride for the Russians, the tone from Moscow has begun to soften. The Russians are now saying their objectives were limited to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
But that’s a lie.
First, at the beginning of the invasion, Putin told the world he’s trying to “denazify” and “demilitarize” Ukraine – whatever that means. Though he needed a land bridge from Russia through the separatist-held areas in the Donbas to Crimea, we also knew he wanted regime change (part of his imagined “denazification”) by toppling the government in Kyiv – thus the rationale of sending in forces from various directions into Ukraine in the hope of a quick victory.
Second, a few hours into the invasion, some of Russia’s best-trained paratroopers were dropped close to Kyiv to seize the Hostomel airport and create an air bridge for reinforcement to come in for an eventual assault on the capital. Much of the force was destroyed by the Ukrainians.
Third, the Russians didn’t stop at that. They tried repeatedly to encircle Kyiv but were beaten back all the time. Desperate, they resorted to shelling Kyiv and other cities but they were fiercely resisted by Ukrainians armed with mostly shoulder-fired anti-aircraft and anti-armour weapons.
Now, after a month of fighting with no swift victory in sight and with rising Russian casualty/equipment losses, Putin is trying to spin his failure to clinch some “victory” in the Donbas. He may succeed in capturing a flattened Mariupol (like Aleppo and Grozny in the past) but he has failed to achieve his main objectives of seizing Kyiv and toppling President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government.
The wounded bully he is, Putin will try to save face over his miscalculation and apparent gamble of messing with the wrong country. However, his ill-considered invasion of Ukraine has not only brought upon biting sanctions against his country and dissatisfaction among his inner circle it has also exposed the weakness and incompetency of his bravado Russian military. No spin will change the facts.
Labaran Yusuf,
Jos, Plateau state.
