Russia’s Ukraine blitzkrieg drags on past 300-day mark

Moscow/Lviv, Dec 20 (EFE).- Tuesday marked 300 days since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Ukrainian troops continue to put up a fierce resistance while recapturing dozens of previously Russian-controlled towns and villages.

The Russian military’s only achievement in the 10 months of fighting was establishing a land corridor linking the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, to the regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

The strategic corridor could be, according to Western military experts, the target of an upcoming Ukrainian counteroffensive after the one in the northeastern region of Kharkiv which ended in October.

While Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to the front line town of Bakhmut in a morale-boosting visit for Ukrainian troops, his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was handing out awards to military personnel at a ceremony in the Kremlin.

Among those who attended the ceremony were Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, and Russian-appointed officials in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the Ukrainian regions that Russia annexed in September despite not completely controlling the territories.

The “special military campaign”, as the Kremlin refers to the war, launched on February 24 that in Putin’s words was aimed at “demilitarizing” and “denazifying” Ukraine has dragged on to become a major challenge for Russia.

Ukraine’s resistance, backed by Western nations, has apparently surprised the Russian invading forces, who have been unable to take control of the areas they annexed and have suffered numerous setbacks since the invasion began.

With modern Western weapons appearing to turn the tide, Ukraine’s army managed to stabilize the situation on the battlefronts and stop the Russian offensive on Kyiv. Moscow troops were then forced to pull out from areas in the east and the south, forcing a radical change in Russian tactics.

Since October, Russian troops have turned to attacking energy infrastructure with missiles and drones, depriving millions of Ukrainians of electricity and water.

“There’s a lot of noise about our strikes on the energy infrastructure of a neighboring country. Yes, we do that. But who started it? Who struck the Crimean bridge?” Putin said, referring to a massive explosion in October on an iconic bridge linking the peninsula to the Russian mainland.EFE

mos-int/smq/ks