The school had just been renovated and had new computers. But that was before the Russian attack on 24 February 2022. – Now you can see for yourself what “The Russian World” – Russkij Mir – looks like, says Vasyl Khoma. Together with news, he drives down Shevchenko Avenue in the million-dollar city of Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine. – There are no children who can start their education here now, states the Ukrainian major resignedly. Vasyl Khoma is one of those who have been involved in the battle for Kharkiv ever since the Russian attack in February. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes He must state that Russia has succeeded in one thing through its attack on Ukraine: To put a country that was in the process of getting back on its feet economically, back to the beginning, 30 years after it became independent again. “Regime of neo-Nazis” A drive around Kharkiv is enough to understand that it will cost enormous sums and a long time to rebuild what Vladimir Putin and the Russian war machine have destroyed. What happened here in Ukraine’s second largest city can stand as an example of Russia’s attack on Ukraine six months ago. Elite Russian soldiers had been told to go into the heart of the predominantly Russian-speaking city to clean up a “regime of neo-Nazis”. That was how the Russian president described Ukraine in his taped speech before the invasion, in which he explained why he had ordered what he called a “special operation” against Ukraine. It would take three days to “secure the city”, according to Russian soldiers who were captured. Putin called on the Ukrainian soldiers and officers to lay down their weapons and go home. It didn’t go quite as planned. – Took the wrong way – The Russian soldiers took the wrong way, and that made it possible for us to surround them and finally eliminate them, either by killing them or capturing them, says Major Vasyl Khoma. A destroyed Russian armored car in front of school number 134 in Kharkiv. Photo: VITALIY GNIDYI / Reuters We stop in front of school number 134, an older building which had therefore been refurbished and which, among other things, offered special lessons in the German language. Now only a skeleton remains. The Ukrainian soldiers in Kharkiv did not heed Putin’s call to go home, but took up the fight. In and around the yellow school building in particular, there was fierce fighting, which ended with the Russian elite forces being eliminated. Dead Russian soldiers outside school number 134 in Kharkiv at the end of February 2022. Photo: SERGEY BOBOK / AFP Now, half a year after the Russian attack, the Ukrainian forces have pushed the Russians away from the city, and in some places back across the border into Russia. Poor planning? Many have wondered what was going through Vladimir Putin’s mind when he ordered the attack on Ukraine, planning for most of it to be over within three days. What kind of intelligence did he base this on? That the Ukrainian soldiers and officers would quickly give up the fight? Kharkiv has been bombed more or less continuously since Russia attacked on February 24. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news The plan was perhaps good enough, on paper. Through a lightning attack using elite forces, Kharkiv and the capital Kyiv were to be occupied during the first days of war. Thus, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the rest of the Ukrainian leadership would be eliminated and unable to lead the resistance struggle. The attack on Hostomel The key to the offensive against Kyiv was that a ground attack from the north was to be supported by airborne forces, flown in by helicopters and planes to the Hostomel airfield northwest of the capital. The latter succeeded – almost. The Russian forces took control of the huge airport in the first hours of the war. But they were pushed back the same day by Ukrainian forces who are said to have received a hint about the attack from American intelligence. A wrecked Russian helicopter at Hostomel airport outside Kyiv. Photo: GLEB GARANICH / Reuters Thus, Russian forces could not receive the planned transport planes with reinforcements, which would make it possible to take control of Kyiv during the three days that were planned. But there wasn’t much to do. news itself saw the remains after the fighting on Peremohy avenue, not many kilometers from the center of the capital. And President Zelenskyi, whom Putin had often referred to in condescending terms, stood out as a leader who stayed in his post. “He became our best brand”, as Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed it in an interview in which he tells about the first dramatic days of the war. Since the beginning, Volodymyr Zelenskyj has led the Ukrainian resistance from his presidential office in Kyiv. Photo: STR / AFP The disaster in the south Kharkiv and Kyiv resisted the Russian attack. Things did not go as well in the south. The Russian attack from the Crimean peninsula and northward could take place without the Ukrainian forces being able to offer significant resistance, at least not in the first few days. Bridges that should have been closed remained standing, and cities such as Melitopol and Kherson were under Russian control within a few days. Already on the first day of the war, Russian forces took control of the power plant and the bridge over the Dnieper, at the town of Kakhovka in Kherson County in southern Ukraine. Photo: AP Soon, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya county was also in Russian hands. In the following months, the battle for Mariupol was further east, which the Russian forces took control of in May. Russia had thereby secured full control over the Ukrainian coastal strip towards the Sea of Azov, and land connection to Crimea, and in addition captured several thousand Ukrainian soldiers. Big losses, on both sides But it has cost Russia. Khrestchatik Street in Kyiv is filled with destroyed and captured Russian tanks and cannons in connection with the national day on 24 August. Ukraine marks Independence Day with an exhibition of destroyed Russian military equipment in the center of Kyiv. Photo: Andrew Kravchenko / AP It is difficult to get an overview of how many Russian soldiers and officers have lost their lives, but they can probably be counted in the tens of thousands. The Ukrainian defense chief said on August 22 that so far 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have lost their lives in the war. This week Unicef published a report stating that 972 children have been killed or injured as a result of the war. At least 5,000 civilians have been confirmed killed, but this figure may rise. The exhibition of destroyed Russian material in the center of Kyiv has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. Photo: Andras D. Hajdu / news Economically on its knees Many have been impressed by the Ukrainian will to resist – and have been surprised by the seemingly reckless and poorly planned Russian attack. But after half a year of war, it is Ukraine that is financially on its knees. The export of foodstuffs has been halved due to the war. Russia, for its part, still makes good money from exporting gas and oil, not least because countries such as China and India have not agreed to the sanctions regime introduced by the US and the West, including Norway. And most importantly: School number 137 on Shevchenko Avenue in Kharkiv is just one of several thousand educational institutions in Ukraine that cannot open their doors to expectant children and young people when the school year starts in a week. So far, it may look as if the war in Ukraine has produced only losers. And a political solution is further away than ever before.
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On the knees, but not beaten – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
