HISTORY

November 2022

On November 11, the Ukrainian troops liberated

Kherson. It has been only 42 days since Putin

declared the city will be Russian forever. At Bakhmut

the fighting in the muddy trenches, reminiscent of

WWI, continued. The Russian bombing of the civilian

infrastructure continued as well. As a reaction to it,

the West started to supply Ukraine with the modern

AA defense systems.

December 2022

The muddy terrain did not allow any significant

movements at the frontline. The Ukrainians, using

the drones, attacked the airports from where

the Russian strategic bombers took off. The USA

promised Ukraine the delivery of the Patriot AA

defense system and later were joined by Germany

and Netherlands as well.

January 2023

The New Year started with the largest massacre

of the Russian soldiers when the building where

hundreds of them stayed for celebrations, including

the stored ammunition, was hit by HIMARS missiles.

There was an ammunition dumpster in that building

as well. After several months, the Russians

achieved the breakthrough at Bakhmut. They took

advantage of the poorly planned Ukrainian troops

rotation and captured the town of Soledar north

of Bakhmut. Germany and USA promised Ukraine

Marder and Bradley AFVs.

February 2023

The Russians continued with the push they initiated

immediately after the New Year. They tried to

attack along the whole frontline, from Kupyansk

and Kremnina at the junction of the Kharkov and

Luhansk areas through Bakhmut and Avdiivka in

Donetsk up to Vuhledar. The pressure at places was

enormous accompanied by large losses, but the

advance was minimal. According to some reports,

in two months since the beginning of the year the

Russians captured only 85 square kilometers of

territory. Each square kilometer of the Ukrainian

territory gained cost them 250 soldiers killed …

Especially at Vuhledar, where they stubbornly

Russia launched at least six balloons with corner radar reflectors into Ukraine on

February 15. At least one of them was shot down by Ukrainian air defense forces.

attacked across the large, widely open terrain, the

Russians suffered big losses – they lost more than

hundred tanks and armored vehicles and the whole

Marine brigade.

Russian losses

Several aircraft and helicopters were reported

shot down on both sides, but these claims could

not be verified. Same as during the previous

months, many of these destroyed aircraft could

be only documented later when the wrecks were

discovered, and the new images surfaced. The

destruction of the Russian Mi-35M helicopter (other

sources stated Mi-24VM) was confirmed however

as it had to perform emergency landing on February

9 near the frontline at Tokarivka in the Kharkov

area, barely 3 kilometers from the Russian border.

Immediately after landing it was destroyed by the

artillery fire from the 14th Independent Mechanized

Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This was

recorded on video by a drone and later photographs

appeared showing a helicopter wreck lying on the

side. On Monday, February 13, the Russian Sukhoi

A Russian Mi-35M had to make an emergency landing near Tokarivka in the Kharkiv

region on February 9 and was subsequently destroyed by Ukrainian artillery.

Su-25 with designation RF-95143 and fuselage number “yellow 37” photographed

in February 2022 in Belarus and destroyed a year later in Belgorod Oblast.

32

INFO Eduard

April 2023