Some 200,000 people are thought to have been killed in fighting between Russia and Ukraine since February 24, 2022, when President Vladimir Putin opened the latest—and perhaps final—chapter of Moscow’s 30-year effort to hinder Kyiv’s westward drift and regenerate a neo-imperial sphere of influence.
Putin’s military gambit has not gone to plan. The stunning failure of Russia’s thunder run on Kyiv in the early days and weeks of the invasion proved a harbinger of Moscow’s battlefield struggles. The demands of large-scale, mechanized, 21st century warfare pulled back the veil on Russia’s supposedly modernized force, illuminating the kind of corruption and incompetence that have hamstrung Moscow’s militaries for years.
#Ukraine: A Russian T-80BV tank with a Kontakt-1 cope cage was destroyed by the Ukrainian 77th Airmobile Brigade near Yahidne, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/yzjPOsjfxn
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 11, 2023
