Guerrilla tactics help Ukraine slow down Russia's advance into Kiev

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 Observers said that guerrilla tactics, defensive barriers and understanding of urban terrain are the reasons why Ukrainian forces were able to slow down the movement of the Russian side in recent days.


According to the Washington Post, when Russian forces took control of Hostomel airport right next to Kiev on February 24 - the first day of Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine, many observers believe that Russia will quickly entered Kiev.


However, after two weeks of conducting "encirclement" rounds around the Ukrainian capital, Russia is still advancing at a slower pace than experts predicted. Many reasons have been "dissected", but one of the factors mentioned is that Ukraine's ability to resist the Russian offensive seems to be beyond Moscow's initial prediction.


The United States and its allies have pledged to provide Ukrainian forces with weapons such as Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger surface-to-air missiles, machine guns and sniper rifles. However, it is not clear how many of these weapons have reached the Ukrainian forces. This forced the Kiev side to find a way to manage the situation at the scene against an army that was considered to be much stronger than them, especially in hot spots such as Irpin and Brovary, in the northeast of central Kiev.


Rob Lee, an expert at the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies (USA), said that Russian forces in recent years still seem to be looking for ways to deal with guerrilla-style tactics that Ukrainian forces carry out in the region. urban.


According to experts, the Ukrainian side seems to be trying to block the advance of Russian forces, to create a "freeze" situation around Kiev. This may be to give Ukraine and the West more time to take other measures to put pressure on Russia.


In fact, outside the battlefield, the West is imposing unprecedented sanctions packages on Russia to force Moscow to make concessions.


In conversations with the Washington Post, Ukrainian officials said they are conducting operations with unpredictable tactics, using their understanding of local terrain to their advantage over Russia.


Across the country, experts say, the Ukrainian side has withdrawn to the cities, limiting confrontation with Russian forces in the countryside. Russia already controls several cities such as Kherson and Melitopol, but it is still working to push further into the neighboring city of Mariupol, as well as other key areas across Ukraine such as Kharkov, Chernihiv and Sumy.


That is why in the southern city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine is still trying to slow down Russia's advance westward towards the strategic port city of Odessa.

Guerrilla Tactics3


Kiev, where Ukraine's government is based, became the most protected target.

According to experts, up to now, the Ukrainian side has basically somewhat limited some of Russia's goals, such as besieging the capital Kiev, using the strategic airport in Hostomel to set up an aviation bridge to bring more weapons to the country. for Moscow forces. Ukraine also has an air defense system that the Washington Post describes as relatively robust to intercept Russian fire.

Fierce confrontations have occurred in Hostomel, Bucha and Irpin in recent days, clearly showing the fighting in the urban environment, between the two forces with asymmetry in potential.

In Irpin, the Ukrainian side deployed anti-tank mines everywhere, said a soldier named Casper. With the convoy tens of kilometers long that Russia deployed in the northeast of Kiev, the Ukrainian side used artillery shells and anti-tank missiles to slow down the advance. In addition, experts say that the fact that the Russian convoy moves slowly and in clusters increases the risk that one shell can damage many vehicles at once.

In addition, Ukraine broke the bridge connecting Irpin and Kiev to prevent the Russian convoy from crossing. The road from the destroyed bridge to Kiev has an obstacle every more than 90 meters such as large concrete blocks, tires and sandbags.

On the other side of the bridge, at the entrance to central Irpin, Ukrainian armed groups dug trenches on a well-positioned hill in order to wait for the Russian side to act.

Ukraine says that Russian forces do not fully understand Irpin's geographical location. Occasionally, Russian vehicles can make a wrong turn or get stuck on small roads and easily become a target for the Ukrainian side.

According to military experts, the capacity and potential of the Ukrainian army cannot compete with Russia if it confronts them directly, so they have deployed small-scale operations, instead of continuously responding to threats. Russian weapons launch.

Even so, most Western analysts and officials predict that Russia will eventually be able to enter the capital Kiev, possibly with the help of air strikes. The problem is, it is not clear when Russia will prevail.

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