(Paris) From the town of Avdiïvka, which fell under Russian control after months of fighting in the east, to Zalouzhny, the popular dismissed army leader, here are words which marked the second year of the war in Ukraine, invaded by Russia on February 24, 2022.
A – Avdiïvka
After four months of Russian assaults, the Ukrainian army, faced with a growing lack of soldiers and weapons, announced, on the night of February 16 to 17, its withdrawal from Avdiïvka, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine largely destroyed and deserted by the overwhelming majority of its 34,000 inhabitants
The fall of Avdiïvka constitutes an important symbolic victory for Russia despite high losses. This neighboring town of Donetsk, the separatist “capital”, briefly fell in July 2014 into the hands of pro-Russian separatists led by Moscow, before returning to Ukrainian control and remaining so until then, embodying resistance to the Russian invasion.
C – Counter-offensive
Kyiv’s long-awaited counter-offensive was launched in early June 2023 to try to reconquer the territories occupied by Moscow. But despite billions in Western military aid, it came up against a strong Russian defense.
Ukraine, on the other hand, can boast of successes in the Black Sea. In recent months, it has defeated the powerful Russian fleet, managing to push back its ships and reopen a maritime corridor to export grain.
D – Drones
They buzz by the thousands above the front. Moscow is raining Iranian Shahed suicide drones, nicknamed “mopeds” by locals because of their noise, on the Ukrainian rear, and even on the capital. Kyiv also sends similar devices deep into Russia, into annexed Crimea or the Belgorod region, and even against Moscow.
J – “I’m Russian!” »
Title of pop singer Shaman, the star of major “patriotic” concerts. “I’m lucky, I’m Russian, against the whole world! », insists the chorus.
The singer performed in early 2023 in front of Russian soldiers in Mariupol, a few months after singing alongside President Vladimir Putin during a concert celebrating Moscow’s claimed annexation of occupied territories in Ukraine.
M – Mobilization
A debate on mobilization has raged for weeks in Ukraine, while the army is struggling today, unlike at the start of the conflict, to find volunteers for the front. President Volodymyr Zelensky said in December that the army had offered to mobilize up to 500,000 people to fill the ranks decimated during the counter-offensive and relieve exhausted veterans.
In Russia, hundreds of thousands of young people fled their country after the announcement in September 2022 of the mobilization. The army was nevertheless able to recruit under contract nearly half a million men in addition to 300,000 mobilized.
P – Patriot
The first American Patriot air defense system was delivered in April 2023 to Ukraine. Provided by the United States and Germany, these sophisticated surface-to-air missile systems now play a key role in its defense, their range being much greater than that of the defense systems used until then.
In particular, they made it possible to shoot down several Russian Kinjal hypersonic missiles, which had been presented as “invincible” by the Kremlin. At the end of January, Vladimir Putin claimed that a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane, which crashed in the Belgorod region with 74 people on board, had been shot down using a Patriot.
W-Wagner
The Russian paramilitary group Wagner claimed in May 2023, after almost a year of bloody fighting, the capture of the town of Bakhmout.
After this hour of glory, its leader Yevgeni Prigojine launched a deadly 24-hour armed revolt to demand the departure of the Chief of Staff and the Minister of Defense. Two months later, he was killed in a mysterious plane crash.
Since then, Wagner has been de facto brought into line and many of his missions entrusted to other paramilitary groups.
Z – Zaluzhny
After weeks of rumors, the popular commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Valery Zaluzhny, was replaced on February 8 by a lesser-known general, Oleksandr Syrsky.
According to highly placed Ukrainian sources, Volodymyr Zelensky blamed him for the lack of progress on the front. Zalouzhny is adored in Ukraine for having foiled the offensive launched two years ago by Vladimir Putin, who believed he could take Kyiv and control of the country in a few days.