russia-ukraine conflict summary 2020 pdf

Putin ordered a call-up of 300,000 soldiers last fall, prompting many young men to flee the country to avoid the draft. It was not the war the Kremlin’s propaganda had promised. In the fall, Ukrainian forces began dealing still more serious blows to the invader, pushing the Russians out of large chunks in the northeast, east and south, though Moscow still holds a large portion of the country and in recent weeks has been gaining some ground again. Of Russian casualties of around 200,000 killed or wounded, by some Western estimates.Ī surprisingly fierce and resourceful Ukrainian Army rebuffed Moscow’s attempts to seize the capital in the early days of the war, and then made Russian forces pay dearly for ground seized when the Kremlin refocused its attention on eastern Ukraine. Of a Kremlin “special military operation” that metastasized into the biggest ground war in Europe since World War II. Now, no one is talking about a walk in the park. Russia was a major military power, if not the global force it was in the days of the Soviet Union.Īnd so when the first planes raced across the border followed by ground troops, it was widely assumed that it would be mere days before the Russian tricolor was hoisted over Kyiv, the capital. Ukraine was a vastly outgunned nation led by the unlikeliest of presidents, a former comedian elected just a few years before. Putin truly did mean to wage an unprovoked war on neighboring Ukraine.

That was the assurance skeptical members of the Russian military said they were given by superiors as it appeared increasingly clear that President Vladimir V.

Russia-ukraine conflict summary 2020 pdf