Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has lasted exactly a month – these seven things surprised everyone

Exactly one month ago, war broke out in Europe.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine was not entirely unexpected, but the scale of the attack surprised many experts. The surprises did not end there.

listed seven things about the course of the war that few could predict.

Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine on the morning of Thursday, February 24th. It soon became apparent that Russian forces were getting stuck in hard and unprofitable battles almost everywhere and failed to reach their targets.

The Kremlin leadership had reportedly expected a profit from Ukraine in a few days. Among other things, the intention was to quickly take over the capital of Ukraine, Kiev, with the help of landing forces.

It happened differently. Many Russian troops have disbanded in defense of the Ukrainian armed forces. Hundreds of Russian tanks have been destroyed and an estimated thousands of soldiers have crashed – Russia has admitted some 500 crashes.

Foreign assessments have found the leadership, skills, maintenance and fighting spirit of Russian forces to be deficient.

– There were too few troops in relation to the targets. And the Russian army has not fought as it should have learned: the attack, for example, had no focus, says a strategy teacher Tapani Montonen About the National Defense College.

The Russians have still taken over parts of Ukraine, especially in the south. Russia’s attack has now stalled as Russia tries to replenish its forces and apparently change its tactics.

The Ukrainians were assured of a good will to defend even before the Russian invasion, but many did not know if they would really be able to resist the major attack. Russia was considered stronger.

On the other hand, Ukraine did not disseminate information about its military readiness and defense plans to the public.

The ability of Ukrainian forces to inflict heavy losses on the Russians and defend the country’s main cities has come as a surprise to most – above all, it was the attacker. The Ukrainian Air Force and Air Defense have also been able to perform better than expected.

Weapons from the West have helped in the defense. Before the Russian invasion, the United States and Britain supplied Ukraine with a large amount of effective anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons. More weapons have been obtained during the war, and Ukraine has, of course, had its own stockpile.

The will of the people to defend is said to be strong, at least in Ukrainian communications, and civilians have been introduced to learn how to use weapons and make fuel bottles. So far, the fighting must have been fought by soldiers. There has been unarmed civilian resistance in the cities conquered by Russia in southern Ukraine.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi has indeed become the leader of his country since the Russian invasion began. He has daily encouraged the people on social media and remained in the capital, despite threats from Russian forces.

Zelenskyi became president the second year, and he was not taken seriously everywhere. Zelenskyi had won the election mainly by presenting the President of Ukraine in a TV series. Of course, he also promised change.

But Russia’s invasion of Zelenskyi has been convincing, infusing Ukraine’s defenders and appealing abroad for help.

Resignation of a Russian president who stays in his bunker, threatens and lacks obvious lies Vladimir Putin is huge.

Ukraine has won another media war. The sympathy of the West is on the side of the attacked, and images of destroyed Russian armor and civilian targets destroyed by Russian missiles coming in a steady stream through social media are doing their job.

Freedom of speech and independent media had been restricted in Russia for a long time, but repression intensified after the attack began. Most independent media had to suspend operations.

Access to social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is now blocked.

The use of the words “war” or “assault” has been banned in public and the ban has been strengthened with the threat of up to 15 years in prison. Opposition to the war has also been criminalized, and police have even investigated text messages.

In the government-controlled media, the expedition was long portrayed as an event in the “separatist regions” of eastern Ukraine and is justified by completely false allegations about the Ukrainian Nazi regime or the genocide of the Russian population.

European countries and the United States responded quickly to Russia’s attack with economic sanctions that were more extensive than ever before. Western companies left Russia, trade and money supply stopped.

Sanctions had already been imposed after the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, but now the European Union was in a new way unanimous in tightening them. Countries that previously understood the Kremlin, such as Hungary, were involved in sanctions.

On the other hand, Europe did not stop buying natural gas from Russia, although the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, for example, has now been suspended.

In addition to sanctions, there has been a complete reversal of Germany’s line of sight. Chancellor Olaf Scholtz decided to substantially increase German defense spending and send anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine.

The use of German weapons against the Russians had been a forbidden idea for decades.

Sweden and Finland also ended up sending weapons to help Ukraine’s defensive struggle. It was a big change for them too – especially for Finland, which has previously avoided annoying Russia.

– The Russian attack was perceived as a threat to the entire European security system. It was a shock because war between states had been a distant idea for Europeans, says strategy teacher Montonen.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine completely changed the basis of Finland’s security policy.

One of the aims of Russia’s attack is to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO, which has been Ukraine’s goal.

Finland had also considered one of its security policies to be part of the so-called NATO option, ie the possibility to apply for NATO membership.

When Russia attacked its neighboring country without regard for international law, the question arose in Finland whether it could attack here as well. NATO did not come to Ukraine’s aid because it is not a member of NATO.

The position of Finns on NATO membership has now changed dramatically. In the past, opinion polls had been a minority in favor of membership. Since the attack began, the proportion of those who want to join NATO has risen to over 60 per cent and has remained there.

Finland’s political leadership has not publicly defined its NATO position.

In any case, Finland has started to intensify defense co-operation with the United States. President Sauli Niinistö and the President of the United States Joe Biden met in Washington a week after the Russian invasion.

In total, therefore, more than ten million people have had to flee the Russian invasion. The number corresponds to a quarter of the total population of Ukraine. Even before that, more than two million Ukrainians had fled their homes in 2014 due to the hostilities that began in eastern Ukraine.

Refugees were expected, but the numbers have surprised.

Poland, where most of the people who fled Ukraine have remained, was preparing for the arrival of about a million refugees before the attack began. There are now more than two million Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

This is the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War and the subsequent displacements. According to the UN refugee agency, it will also get worse very quickly – unless the fighting is stopped.

You can discuss the topic until Friday, March 25th. until 11 p.m.