On February 24, 2022, the Russian army assembled about 200,000 troops around the Ukrainian border. One of the main attack directions was to surround Kiev from the west and northeast, trying to launch a "decapitation operation" against the current Ukrainian regime. The central part was to capture the Freedom Square in the center of Kiev or overthrow the Ukrainian regime. The 31st Airborne Brigade of the Russian Army launched a raid on Antonov Airport in the suburbs of Kiev, but the operation failed. The Russian army quickly resumed offensive operations in that area to try to surround Kiev from the west and east directions, and advance all the way to the suburbs of Kiev. The Ukrainian army withstood the Russian offensive in the next five weeks and launched a limited counter-offensive operation in the suburbs of Kiev, forcing the Russian army to withdraw from Kiev and Chernigov areas in full. The following are the three main reasons why the Ukrainian army won the battle to defend Kiev:
exchanges space for time , and the troops were broken into pieces
When the Russian army attacked the Donbass region of Ukraine in 2014, the Ukrainian army tried to block the Russian army on the border, but was often surrounded by Russian troops. This time, the Ukrainian army let the Russian army penetrate deep into Ukraine, exchanging space for time, and the troops disguised as zero.
Take the battle in Chernigov as an example. On the morning of February 24, when a Russian tank unit swept southwest from the Russian- Belarusian border area, a Ukrainian tank brigade blocked between the Russian army and the eastern suburbs of Kiev.
The 1st Tank Brigade of the Ukrainian Army during the exercise
The 1st Tank Brigade of the Ukrainian Army was far lower in terms of troops and equipment than the tactical group of about 10 battalions of the 41st Synthetic Army of the Russian Army, and it also received support from adjacent Russian troops. Incredibly, the 1st Tank Brigade not only resisted the Russian army with a large advantage in the first few days of the war, but quickly turned into active defense and defended the city of Chernigov, 60 miles northeast of Kiev, Ukraine, for the next five weeks.
The Russian army surrounded and cut off Chernigov's ties with the outside world, but the Ukrainian 1st Tank Brigade and various Ukrainian reserves and local defense units held their positions. Last Thursday, the Ukrainian recaptured the first of several major roads connecting Kiev and Chernigov. The month-long siege of the Russian army was broken and the Ukrainian army began to take the initiative in combat, the first time since the Russian army attacked the Ukrainian army.
The 1st Tank Brigade is one of the best of the 20 active brigades in Ukraine. It includes three tank battalions equipped with the latest locally produced T-64BM tanks and a mechanized infantry battalion equipped with BMP tanks. Each battalion consists of 40 or 50 armored vehicles and approximately 400 soldiers in the organization. The brigade's support force includes three artillery battalions —each equipped with 2S1 and
Like many Ukrainian armies, the 1st Tank Brigade was once part of the Soviet army, but fell into chaos after the collapse of in 1991. Ukrainian troops reorganized the brigade in September 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimea seven months ago, and then supported separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Around January 2015, members of the 1st Tank Brigade tried to break through the Russian siege of Donetsk Airport to support the Ukrainian army defending there, and the brigade lost more than twenty tanks .
After a crushing defeat at Donetsk airfield, the First Tank Brigade rotated in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. Just last April, the brigade was still in Donbas . Last spring, as the Russians began assembled troops on the Ukrainian border, the 1st Tank Brigade returned to its permanent resident in the Mizrichinsky Nature Reserve outside Kiev.
But the brigade was not in Mizrichinsky on the night the Russian army launched an attack. Like most Ukrainian troops, it has been dispersed, preventing the Russian initial artillery, rockets, and air strikes from achieving the expected strike effect.
Russian T-72B3 tanks destroyed in Chernigov
The 1st Tank Brigade concentrated its forces in time to intercept the 41st synthetic arms army of the Russian army attacking Chernigov. Chernigov is a city with a population of 290,000 and an important stronghold for Kiev's peripheral defense. On the first day of major ground combat, the 1st Tank Brigade stopped the advance of the 41st Synthetic Army of the Russian Army. The British Ministry of Defense commented on the day's war on February 24: "Russia is unlikely to achieve its first day's military goals."
Ukraine's 1st Tank Brigade fought a arduous battle, slowing down but failing to stop the gradual siege of Chernigov by the 41st Synthetic Army and keeping at least one road to Kiev open. But after two weeks of fighting, the Russian army was about to surround Chernigov and his defenders. Russian military expert Tom Cooper wrote on March 6: "I wouldn't be surprised if Chernigov was completely cut off today."
Soon, the 1st Tank Brigade and its associated reserves and homeland defenders fought alone in Chernigov. Over the next three weeks, they defeated every attempt by the Russian army to capture the city, and the Russian army tried to open up a wider road to Kiev.
The 41st Synthetic Army has been unable to capture Chernigov for a long time, and is eager to make progress in the army, senior Russian military officers have repeatedly exposed themselves to the firepower of the Ukrainian army. Ukrainian sources said General Vitali Gerasimov, deputy commander of the 41st Synthetic Army, died near Kharkov , east of Chernigov, on March 7. It is reported that General Andrei Sukhovitski, deputy commander of the 41st Synthetic Army, was shot dead by a Ukrainian army sniper a few days ago.
Russian troops bombed Chernigov from the ground and in the air. On March 5, air defense personnel from the 1st Tank Brigade or nearby units shot down at least one Russian Aerospace Force Su-34 fighter jet, one of the two crew members died and the other was captured by Ukrainian troops.
Russian T-72AV tanks seized by the Ukrainian army
At least 39 soldiers were killed in the 331st regiment of the Russian army. They were part of a column from Belarus to Ukraine, led by Russian airborne forces, whose presence highlighted the priority of their goal - advancing toward Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.
This progress quickly fell into a destructive deadlock in the suburbs of Kiev, and soon became synonymous with the viciousness of war: Bucha, Irping and Hostmer. The combat videos appearing on the Internet show that the chariot used by Russian airborne troops is painted with the "V" logo. The video shows several light armored vehicles of the Russian airborne troops being damaged and abandoned after being attacked by Ukrainian special forces. Another video shows that several vehicles of Russian airborne troops have been apparently abandoned.
The people of the 331st Regiment consider themselves to be the best in the Russian army. In a video released online in May last year, a general told the soldiers of the 331st Guard Paratroopers that they were “the elite of the elite.” The force participated in the Balkans, Chechnya and the 2014 Russian intervention in the Donbass region of Ukraine, and regularly participated in the Red Square parade in Moscow.
The 331st Regiment is also a sample unit of the professionalization of the Russian army. It demonstrates Russia's policy of replacing compulsory soldiers with contracted service personnel. Its military quality is much better than that of ordinary conscripts. This makes it understand why the generals gave it an important role in their attack on Ukraine.
The 331st Guard Parallel participated in a military exercise held in Crimea a year ago to put pressure on Ukraine, but did not participate in the pre-war assembly operation of the Russian army that had not participated in the Ukrainian war until very late. In January this year, the regiment even dispatched some personnel to participate in the Kazakhstan peacekeeping operation. Deputy Regiment Chief Major Sergei Krelov said in an interview that the Kazakhstans expressed their gratitude to the Russian army for their actions. The 331st Guard Parallel was deployed to Belarus in February and was subsequently incorporated into the Russian Airborne Force Task Force to carry out the mission of capturing the Ukrainian capital Kiev to the south.
From the first day of the war, the battle at Horstmer Airport became a tug-of-war. The Russian army originally hoped that the paratroopers, as elite troops, could make a breakthrough, but the Russian paratroopers were ambushed and fought on the streets, with little progress. Ukrainian drones have also tracked and attacked Russian paratroopers.
Discarded Russian paratroopers vehicles
However, these angers in online exchanges have nothing to do with the combat experience of Russian airborne troops, who were attacked by Ukrainian artillery, ambush and infantry during weeks of bloody battles. During these close combat, they discovered what the Russian paratroopers learned in Afghanistan - is designed light enough to be able to board the plane's does not resist the enemy's firepower well. From a road outside the Horstmey Airport to a small street in Bucha, or an intersection in Ilpin, videos taken by Ukrainian soldiers showed that vehicles belonging to Russian airborne troops were destroyed or abandoned.
These videos taken with mobile phones also illustrate a more basic failure, in these broken neighborhoods around Kiev, Russian paratroopers were defeated by the Ukrainians. Given that defenders are only local defense units or reserve personnel in many cases, this shows that there is a fundamental failure in the training and recruitment system of Russian paratroopers.
The Ukrainians seized the death of the 331st Regiment and excitedly claimed that the regiment had been "destroyed". Ilya Ponamalev, a former Russian MP and opposition member, now lives in Kiev, said people there believed that the fate of the regiment was "a perfect example of retribution." During the 2014 battle in Donbas, the Ukrainians believed that the 331st Regiment had violated the ceasefire agreement and killed hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers in Ilovaisk .
However, despite the huge losses the regiment suffered, it is an exaggeration to claim that they have been annihilated. However, the 331st Regiment has most likely recently withdrawn from Ukraine – of course, the Airborne Forces contingent to which it belonged was photographed on March 29 withdrew from Ukraine to Belarus.
Logistics supply line to strike the Russian army
Ukrainian army used special forces and land defense forces to attack the Russian army's logistics supply convoy. The Ukrainian army also dispatched TB-2 drone and artillery to strike Russian targets, consuming a lot of Russian troops' strength.
The Russian army fighting in Ukraine is facing the problem of insufficient logistics support materials. The intercepted Russian army calls showed that the Russian army lacked oil, tents, food, body armor . A Russian officer said on the phone that 50% of the troops were frostbite, there were not enough tents, no body armor, and medical staff had only bandages, unable to help deal with frostbite, and no hot stoves, so they could only sleep in the trenches. Poor logistical support is seriously restricting the Russian offensive operations in Ukraine, forcing the Russian army to stop.
As the Russian army's fuel and other important supplies are exhausted, pictures of damaged or abandoned vehicles become common. Although the external manifestation of many of the problems faced by the Russian military seems to be a logistical issue, the real core of the problem may be corruption. It has been reported that Russian officers sold off their troops' fuel and food supplies before launching military operations against Ukraine, and these corruptions may have caused the Russian tank column to stagnate outside Kiev.
The Russian army fighting in Ukraine faces serious logistical support challenges
This period lasts 2 minutes and 20 seconds. The Chinese translation of the phone is full:
Hello, Viktovic. Greetings to you
Hello, hello, I can tell you, the situation here is so fucking bad. Recently, yesterday, multi-rocket launcher played some role, we asked our people, but no one could say anything with certainty. Our column stopped where it was, and another column went there, it was destroyed, and was bombarded by multiple rockets. I talked to the medical troopers, here are the medical troopers of the 66th Synthetic Army. I talked to them about frostbite and they said, "We only have bandages for 300 wounded people. I can tell that 50% of the people have frostbite. They can't even transport more than 200 dead people properly."They have been on the vehicle with us for the past five days. I can imagine it. We got here and the temperature dropped below zero and we should have got 4 M30 tents, but we only got one tent and we didn't have a hot stove, everything was really bad, we dug the trenches and slept in the trenches. Is
in Nikolayev ?
Yes. Where is your commander? Who is responsible there now?
Lieutenant General Yakov Vladimirovic Lezantev (Chief of the 66th Synthetic Army Group) is here, and we first met him after we arrived here, and that was on the fourth day after the operation began. You know, what did he say to us? "It's no secret, and the operation will end in a few hours." The operation is still ongoing. These guys told him that they only had ordinary Kavra body armor but no bulletproof armor inserts. They said, "Comrade General, this is my situation." You know what he said, he said, child, hold on. He then left.
Currently, there are about 200,000 Russian troops in Ukraine. they need 800 tons of supplies every day, and the demand for fuel is also huge. The 120 battalions of the Russian army directly participated in the war in Ukraine require 4 million liters of fuel every day. The oil carried by the battalion tactical group can only be used for 5 days, which means that the fuel will be replenished on the third day at the latest. These safeguards must be organized and must be covered.
There is no local area in Ukraine that can provide logistics support to the Russian army. These logistics supplies must be transported from strategic bases in Russia. This brings to the second challenge, the distance and space of the logistics support line. As we mentioned earlier, Russia's strategic base must be able to provide sufficient logistical support, and the Russian strategic base in western Russia consists of military industry, civil economy, warehouses and reserves. The situation in the recent week shows that the sanctions imposed by the West are having an impact on these Russian strategic bases.
Another logistical challenge about distance lies in Ukraine itself. Logistics must rely on logistics support channels, such as streets, railway traffic, transportation, and air transportation. When we look at the topographic map of Ukraine, Ukraine has many railway lines that can be used for logistics support, streets and two western maritime traffic lines, one in Odessa and one near Mariupol .
Russian military convoys are often attacked by Ukrainian troops
The challenge is that the safety of the traffic line must be ensured. Blocking behavior in Belarus shows challenges in railway routes from north to south. The Russian army cannot fully control those occupied Ukraine areas. The Ukrainian army launched attacks in the occupied areas, blowing up bridges and raiding railways, which means that the Ukrainian army is using these small-scale targeted strikes to undermine the logistics of the Russian army. All efforts of the Russian army in those areas are to minimize these attacks. These small-scale sabotage operations by the Ukrainian army had a significant impact on the morale of the Russian army. It can be imagined that if you don’t have food for two days, if you don’t have food for three days, you won’t get any gasoline, which means that the confidence of Russian soldiers in their leadership will be greatly weakened. We will be able to see whether the Russian army can restore balance in the next few days.
The second challenge in Ukrainian space is the bad weather, the blown-up bridges, and the enemy threat. This greatly reduced the speed of Russian army's logistics transportation. The average speed of a logistics support fleet on the highway is usually 60 to 70 kilometers. Due to the above factors, the average speed of the fleet drops to 20 to 30 kilometers, which in turn affects the mileage of the transportation. The convoy must carry out multiple transportations to use up the same amount of material transportation. This brings up the problem of why the Russian army is so heavily dependent on railway transportation lines. Obviously, this is for two reasons: the first is that the railway can transport more materials, such as ammunition, oil. The second reason is more obvious. The Russian logistics support force is not equipped with enough transport vehicles.
Russian convoys parked on the road due to lack of fuel
When we look at the combat diagram, such as the direction of the attack of the Russian army and the target, one can determine that these large-scale attacks are initiated along or rely on important railway lines, such as in the southeast or in the north. For the Russian army, transportation hubs are of great significance, such as Cherkov or Donetz. The battle in Mariupol has been very fierce in recent days, and the battle in Odessa has also begun. Why did the Russian army attack these two cities? Obviously for logistical purposes, Odessa has a seaport that can be connected to other places occupied by Russia by water. Mariupol has railway lines from south to north that are available.
The last challenge is the duration of the operation. Apparently, the Russian army initially believed that this would be a short-lasting military operation, and therefore it may have neglected to prepare sufficient logistics reserves for the Russian troops that launched the military operation. However, the Russian army encountered stubborn resistance from the Ukraine army in Ukraine, and the consequence was that the Russian army would build a logistics base in Ukraine's combat areas to provide a logistical buffer and meet the urgent needs of the Russian army. The Russian army also needs to ensure the safety of these logistics bases and the supply line between the logistics bases and the front-line Russian army.
NATO spy satellites, reconnaissance aircraft and drones provide intelligence support to the Ukrainian army
In outer space in its military arsenal, Western countries have advanced electronic eyes and ears to monitor and eavesdrop on everything that happened during Russia's attack on Ukraine in the early morning of February 24.
Dozens of silent spy satellites belonging to NATO countries intercepted the communication between Kremlin and the Russian military's supreme command, while tracking the whereabouts of Russian tanks and tank columns as they penetrated through Ukrainian plains to Kiev, Kharkov, Belgorov and Mariupol.
Reconnaissance satellite intelligence processors convert data into intelligence reports
They also scan the locations of howitzers, cannons, rocket launchers and ground-to-ground missiles companies from space to support the Russian combat forces' propelled. Of course, they also assessed the damage they caused to the Kiev government's air bases, port facilities, radar devices and defense positions, along with Russian attack aircraft and helicopters.
Atlantic Union countries, especially the United States, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, are constantly receiving large amounts of data and converting this data into intelligence reports for use by their civilian and military authorities. They reassigned the space platform's flight plans so that spy satellites prioritize the five areas where Russian troops attack, occupy and control Ukrainian territory.
The United States is the country with the most and most technologically advanced spy satellites. The organization responsible for developing, manufacturing, launching and operating these secret orbital platforms is the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), a space intelligence service that works 24/7 365 days a year. Data and images were transferred to the Pentagon, the National Security Council, the State Department of Anthony Blinken and various U.S. intelligence agencies for analysis.
NATO officials disclosed that the flight of NATO reconnaissance aircraft in the airspace around Ukraine has played an important role in helping the Ukrainian army "clear at a targeted location" of Russian high-value targets. After Russia launched an offensive against Ukraine, NATO has 10 to 15 reconnaissance, intelligence and surveillance aircraft flying in nearby airspace in western, northern and southern Ukraine. These reconnaissance intelligence surveillance aircraft include E-8C Joint Star, RC-135V/W Joint Rivet, RC-135U "Combat Despatch", U-2S Madam Dragon, RQ-4 Global Hawk , MQ-9 Reaper, EP-3E Aries II, P-8A Poseidon, RC-12X, US Army "Moonlight Goddess" reconnaissance aircraft.
These reconnaissance, intelligence and surveillance aircraft plus NATO drones collected a large amount of data on high-value Russian targets and handed over this data to the Ukrainian military. Based on these data, the Ukrainian army launched a targeted elimination operation against the Russian army's high-value targets in Ukraine.This is also why the Russian army lost seven generals and 15 colonels in the war that has lasted for several weeks.
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