Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1532587
By mid-summer 2014, it had become clear to all parties in the conflict that the hybrid forces that had emerged in Donbas with limited Russian support were incapable of achieving the objectives Russia had set for them. The plan was for these forces to exploit the weakness of the new government in Kyiv and quickly seize large areas of several regions, thereby forcing Kyiv into negotiations mediated by Russia and on Russian terms. However, it turned out that the new Kyiv authorities were able to mobilize fairly quickly. Ukraine held presidential and parliamentary elections, stabilizing the system of governance. The army, which had been in disarray at the beginning of 2014, had managed to mobilize some forces by summer, which were immediately deployed to Donbas. In the second half of the summer, it became evident that negotiations were no longer viable, and Kyiv began treating the Donbas uprising as a Russian hybrid war against Ukraine—leading Ukrainian forces to launch their own offensive. The mission of the Ukrainian army, National Guard, and volunteer units was to cut off pro-Russian armed groups in Donbas from the Russian border and trap them in urban centers, forcing them to surrender without the need for direct assaults on cities. Ukraine's overwhelming advantage in materiel and firepower forced the pro-Russian forces to retreat from previously held positions. The territory controlled by these groups continued to shrink. For Russia, it became evident that its previous strategy was ineffective. This marked the beginning of the direct involvement of the Russian army in the conflict and the progressive integration of various pro-Russian groups into the structures of the Russian military. The Kremlin appointed its own unofficial overseer for Donbas affairs, a role that was held for a long time by Vladislav Surkov. Russia began directly financing pro-Russian structures in Donbas and supplying them with equipment and weaponry. The earlier approach of hybrid support through Kremlin-linked oligarchs was abandoned. The process of Russian military involvement in the war escalated over time. Initially, it was believed that merely supporting the existing groups by training Russian "volunteers" heading to Donbas and arming these groups with heavy equipment, tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery, and air defense systems; would be sufficient. The scale of material assistance steadily increased. In the border areas, the Russian army established logistical and training bases for the pro-Russian fighters in Donbas. New recruits and Russian volunteers, often recruited among those with combat experience, underwent brief training at Russian facilities before being deployed in well-equipped columns to Donbas. These columns broke through Ukrainian defensive positions at the border with direct support from concentrated Russian artillery fire. At this stage, Ukrainian forces refrained from returning fire, fearing a full-scale Russian invasion. This logistical and material support slowed the Ukrainian offensive. Nevertheless, the pro-Russian forces suffered from a lack of unified command and coordination. Leaders of these groups were often at odds with one another, and infighting between different factions was common. As a result, ammunition and equipment supplied by Russia were frequently used not against the Ukrainian army but against rival factions fighting for control over specific cities or industrial facilities. I personally know a civilian from Donbas who was taken captive at one of the Oplot Battalion bases in Donetsk during this period. At that time, various pro-Russian groups were openly engaging in looting in the territories they controlled. My acquaintance was an ordinary Protestant civilian from a small town in southern Donbas. The pro-Russian Stage IV. Ukrainian Offensive. Pro-Russian Groups are Arming Themselves. www.fragoutmag.com