HISTORY

Text: Miro Barič

Photo: ZSU

Photo: National Library of Scotland

The air war over Ukraine

Bogged in the mud

The Ukrainian soldiers in trenches near Bachmut, 2022.

The British soldiers in the battle of Passchendaele, 1917.

During the period of November 1 through December 1 the most important event was finding out how long the eternity takes. It is 42

days. This was exactly the time which elapsed since the Russian

president Putin proclaimed that Kherson will be Russian forever

until the moment the city was liberated by the Ukrainian troops.

Otherwise, there were no ground movements in Ukraine due to the

poor weather. The massive shelling of the cities by the Russian

missiles continues as well as strengthening of the Ukrainian air

defenses.

Kherson was captured by Russian right

at the beginning of the invasion. Besides

Donbas it was the only regional center and

large city the Russians managed to capture. It is located on the Dnieper right bank

and its importance was as a launching point for the further advance on Mykolaiv and

Odessa. Since the further advance was

stopped and due to the Ukrainian counterattack in the end of August, Kherson became a logistics nightmare.

With the unstoppable regularity, the Ukrainians shelled and destroyed the bridges

across the river Dnieper, weapons dumps

and command centers. Simultaneously

they exercise the permanent pressure on

the Russian front lines. And despite the

Russian occupation administration organized the mock referendum after which the

Kherson area, together with other three

ones, was “forever” annexed to the Russian Federation, it was clear to the Army

command that holding the positions on the

Dnieper right bank will only lead to further

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losses. So, on November 11, an anniversary

of the armistice that ended WWI, they retreated from Kherson to the left bank and

destroyed all the bridges behind them.

The legendary Chornobayivka was liberated on the way to Kherson. The Ukrainians

had launched the large number of the

rocket and artillery attacks on its airbase

destroying a large quantity of the Russian

helicopters and ground equipment. Gradually the airport was turned to a one huge

graveyard. The Ukrainians recaptured two

of their own helicopters (Mi-8 and Mi-24P)

which had been captured by Russians at

the beginning of the invasion in non-airworthy condition and painted their Z markings on them. Now the aircraft returned

to the hands of their original owners.

Much like during WWI

In November the larger operations at different front sections were limited by rainy

weather and mud. The worst conditions

were around Bachmut in Donetsk area

where the Russians have been pushing

for several months. The images from there started to resemble the battle of Ypres

(Passchendaele) during WWI-trenches

filled with water, shot up trees and ever-present mud. While the activity at the

front (except Kherson) practically stopped

it continued to be “hot” in the air. The Russians continued with their attacks against

the Ukrainian energy infrastructure. They

used rockets, cruise missile launched from

the ships and airplanes as well as the kamikaze drones. For example, on November

23 ten strategic bombers tu-95 took part

in the attack and from the safety of the Russian airspace far from the front launched

more than 70 cruise missiles. More than

50 were shot down by the Ukrainian AA

defense. Those who penetrated however

caused a massive damage. In the course of

October and November the Russians have

launched altogether seven attack waves

and hit around 40% of the Ukrainian energy

infrastructure. After each of these attack

wave millions of people remained without

electricity, heating and running water.

During the last three November weeks,

no Iranian unmanned vehicle Shahed-136

appeared which prompted great speculations about these kamikaze drones. In the

end it turned out that the Russians had

only exhausted the first batch and awaited

further delivery. For more than two months Iran vehemently denied any drones

deliveries to Russia. It was an obvious lie

though. Ultimately on Saturday Novem-

January 2023