2023-07-08 16:51:12
It has now been 500 days that the Ukrainians have been fighting against the Russian invader. 500 days that the Russians bombard Ukrainian cities. And despite the current counter-offensive attempt, the fighting should not stop anytime soon.
In its slow offensive, kyiv calls for even more weapons. And the task is difficult, the fighting is fierce. At the cost of heavy losses, the Russian army put up strong resistance with powerful defenses, and Ukraine lacked air force and artillery ammunition.
“I don’t think it will be soon, but we will win”
The Russians “have built strong fortifications, they have a lot of equipment,” said 73-year-old Nikopol resident Antonina Morakhovska, for whom the conflict will not end anytime soon.
“I see how ours are progressing, that it’s not easy for them. There is this heat and I think of them all the time, the poor people. I see how they are there, in the trenches, in the water sometimes above their knees” like in the spring, she says. “It will be hard, but we will win all the same (…) I do not think it will be soon, but we will win”, predicts this retired professor.
So when the audible alarm signaling a possible strike sounds, the retired teacher who lives under the constant threat of Russian bombardment, says: “When the siren sounds like that, I always have the same thought: that you (the Russians) , bastards (sic), die all over there”.
9,000 civilians, including more than 500 children killed, according to the UN
Despite billions in Western military aid, the Ukrainian army has only resumed since the beginning of its offensive a few hundred square kilometers and liberated about ten localities. In other words, far from its lightning successes in the fall, with more than 9,000 km² reclaimed in nine days east of Kharkiv in September, and an additional 5,000 km² in November in the Kherson region.
“The offensive is not fast, that’s a fact,” acknowledged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is urging Westerners to provide him with long-range weapons and F-16 fighter jets. “Without long-range weapons, it is difficult not only to carry out offensive missions but also, to be honest, defensive operations,” the president explained.
The impatience expressed by some, including in the West, to see progress on the front which stretches over 1,000 km, tenses the Ukrainian camp. “It swells me,” army chief Valery Zalouzhny recently commented.
On the 500th day of the conflict, Ukrainian unity remains intact but their resilience continues to be tested. According to the UN, since the invasion on February 24, 2022, 9,000 civilians, including more than 500 children, have been killed, including in Russian bombardments, despite a considerably reinforced air defense since the beginning of the year.
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