Imagine what it must have felt like for Ukrainian soldiers to retake one of their villages from the Russians, lifting their national flag to fly once again over Molodova. The village is about 13 miles from the border between the two countries. And their two-week counteroffensive strategy is going well.
The plan has been to retake villages one-by-one in the Kharkiv territory in eastern Ukraine. The latest village, Moldova, is southeast of the border.
Telegram has been showing the moment when the Ukrainian troops placed a Ukrainian flag on one of the village buildings, according to CNN:
‘[CNN] has geolocated and verified the authenticity of the video.’
In the video, we could hear a soldier in the background saying:
‘This is how we liberate. Step-by-step, village-by-village. Our land.’
In addition, the Ukrainian soldiers have been moving closer in a strategic move to not only capture the villages but also capture or destroy the enemy’s supply lines. These run between Izium down into the Donetsk region, all in the eastern Russian-occupied territory.
By capturing the supply lines in this area, the Ukrainians would be able to interrupt Russia’s advance into any land west of there. Both Donetsk and Luhansk regions along the eastern border are where they have spent most of their time “fighting and shelling.”
The Russian soldiers have had help fighting the Ukrainians. Russian supporting separatists have come forward to fight in Donetsk and Luhansk, according to The Crisis Group:
‘The armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine started in 2014. Between then and early 2022, it had already killed over 14,000 people. Over the course of eight years, Ukrainian government forces fought Russian-backed separatists for control over much of the two heavily industrialised (British spelling) regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, also known as Donbas.’
Russian separatists signed a Minsk agreement among Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany in early 2015. That halted the separatist troops from advancing. But the war continued in the economic and heavy industrial areas. Millions of Ukrainians fled, and the two groups left “one of the world’s most mine-contaminated areas.”
There were approximately 75,000 troops fighting one another along a heavily populated area along about a 250-mile line. The trench war continued until the Russian made a full-country invasion in 2022:
‘The decision of the Russian government to recognize the independence of the two separatist republics on 21 February 2022 effectively put an end to discussions of Minsk implementation. Three days later, Russia invaded Ukraine, heralding a new phase of the war with a scope of violence far beyond what is depicted here.’
Ukrainian forces’ strategy of inching forward and recapturing village by village gives the nation hope that Ukraine will once again be a united, free democracy.
Three White Lions is Gloria Christie’s new serialized book available in episodes on Amazon. Go to Kindle Vella and insert her name. She also writes for the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
