When Russian shells began raining on Ukrainian cities and Russian tanks smashed across the border toward Kyiv on Feb. 24, 2022, much of the world wrote off Ukraine. The U.S. had prepared to back a Ukrainian guerrilla campaign against Russian occupiers on the assumption that the invaders would enter Kyiv in weeks, if not sooner, decapitating the government of President Volodomyr Zelenskyy.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression did not go as planned. Indeed, Ukrainian forces not only stopped the Russian drive on the capital, they also drove the Russians back in a series of humiliating defeats. This is the story told by the Wall Street Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov in “Our Enemies Will Vanish,” an eyewitness account of the war’s first year.
In this episode of History As It Happens, Mr. Trofimov, who has spent two decades covering conflicts from the front lines, discusses what’s at stake for Ukraine as the war turns into a World War I-style slog. Neither side appears able to achieve a major breakthrough. In the eastern town of Avdiivka, for instance, thousands of soldiers have been killed and wounded in a matter of weeks, as Russian forces encircle the now uninhabitable area.
“Since the last big breakthrough of the war, which was in November 2022, the front lines have hardly moved and the initiative has seasawed. So far the Russians haven’t been able to gain any significant ground because of fierce Ukrainian resistance, but that is becoming more and more difficult as Ukraine suffers from an acute ammunition shortage,” said Mr. Trofimov, a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
History As It Happens is available at washingtontimes.com or wherever you find your podcasts.
