Ukraine’s military is gaining confidence as it gains territory

GlobalPost

DEBALTSEVE, Ukraine — With its potholed roads amid desolate fields, this strategic intersection in Ukraine’s industrial heartland doesn't look like much.

But for Viktor Grigoriyevich, a captain in the 93rd Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian army, it’s significant for being some 80 miles south of where he started, no mean feat in a war that’s being waged city-to-city and checkpoint-to-checkpoint.

Having thrust deep into territory once occupied by separatist rebels, his unit, like many others, seems to have overcome some of the setbacks that had earlier kept Ukraine’s military crippled and incompetent in its campaign against eastern Ukraine’s pro-Moscow insurgents.

Now Grigoriyevich believes the main phase of the government’s “anti-terrorist” operation should be over by the end of the month.

“I think I represent the general opinion when I say that everyone was fed up with the inaction, and that the recent turn of events is inspiring,” he said.

Ever since reclaiming the former rebel stronghold of Slovyansk last month, Ukraine’s fighting forces, including volunteer battalions and National Guard units, have steadily pushed the rebels from a patchwork of cities in the northern Donetsk region and other places, and have nearly surrounded eastern Ukraine’s two regional capitals.

Overall, officials claim Ukrainian forces have won back around three-quarters of the territory once occupied by rebels and are promising a speedy end to the anti-insurgent campaign.

(Dan Peleschuk via Instagram)

That would have seemed wishful thinking at best just a few months earlier.

Demoralized, underequipped and thoroughly corrupt, the military was in no shape to fight against militant separatism when violence first hit eastern Ukraine last spring.

Experts point to a lasting legacy of dysfunction in Ukraine’s security structures made worse by former President Viktor Yanukovych, whose inner circle bled the country dry and hollowed out its most important institutions.

Oleksiy Melnyk, a defense expert at the Razumkov Center think tank in Kyiv, says the country was left with “nothing.”

“No armed forces, a completely corrupt police, and security services that were penetrated by the FSB [Russian security service] to the extent that they weren’t just useless, but even harmful,” he said.

“Now, it looks like amazing progress has been made in the last four months.”

However, Melnyk agrees with many others who say the road ahead won't be smooth.

Rebels still control a large chunk of territory in the neighboring Luhansk region, as well as a considerable part of the border with Russia.

That’s especially vital because it serves as a supply line for the men and materiel most observers say filter in from Russian territory.

But as far as morale goes, at least in Grigoriyevich’s unit, there’s been a marked improvement.

That’s partly because many of those deemed unfit to fight for physical, psychological or logistical reasons have now been rotated away from the front line or out of the army altogether, he says.

“The worst thing of all is a lack of understanding about where you’re going and for what,” he said. “But when that understanding crystalizes, there are no more questions.”

An outpouring of public support for the army has surely helped boost morale.

Public donation campaigns have provided everything from bulletproof vests and elbow pads to food rations and medical supplies.

Grigoriyevich says “friends” bought him a pair of binoculars. He’s also waiting for a delivery of night-vision goggles.

But the volunteer effort goes far beyond providing material support for the military.

The establishment of volunteer paramilitary battalions has provided a crucial part of the anti-separatist campaign.

Typically subordinated to the Interior Ministry, they’ve attracted thousands of eager recruits who have participated in front-line battles.

Commanders say recruits from across Ukraine have signed up, forming the heart and soul of the country’s fight against separatism.

“In part of our society, there’s this idea that the West should help us,” said a deputy commander of the Donbass Battalion whose nom-de-guerre is “Wolverine.”

“But as a military man, I understand perfectly well that the West will not send its own children to help us defend our statehood — that’s our task.”

The image battle has been as daunting as the actual fighting in eastern Ukraine, where a fierce propaganda campaign on Russian state-run media has helped cast both the Ukrainian army and especially the volunteer battalions as bloodthirsty fascists.

Usually an overwhelming exaggeration, that narrative has nevertheless stoked fear among many ordinary citizens in eastern Ukraine who look to Russian media for their news, and initially fueled popular support for the separatists.

But Wolverine, who says he served in the Soviet, then Ukrainian military for more than two decades, says face-to-face interaction with the local population is key to defeating the propaganda.

He says his fighters have gathered with residents of Popasna — a forlorn town of ramshackle apartment blocs just over the border of the Luhansk region that now serves as a forward base for the battalion — to talk or simply watch TV together.

“Then begins the process of understanding that we’re just like them, except that we’re in favor of Ukrainian statehood.”

Many locals are still treading carefully.

While they may have disliked the rebels’ heavy-handed, often coercive form of gun rule, many still blame the Ukrainian military for destroying homes and killing relatives caught in the crossfire.

In Popasna, which was heavily shelled for five straight days in July, some residents are neither excited nor frightened of the Donbass Battalion’s presence.

But all are simply fed up with being caught in the middle.

“If you want to fight, take it out onto the battlefield and fight there,” said 26-year-old Denis Vitaliyevich, whose apartment building was pounded by the recent shelling. “But leave ordinary people out of it.”

The aftermath of an apparent Grad rocket strike in Mariyinka, Donetsk, last month. (Dan Peleschuk via Instagram)

Melnyk, the defense analyst, says fighting in densely populated cities still presents a major “constraint” for the military, whose officials have publicly said that their forces avoid shelling civilian areas.

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Other setbacks include a lack of proper air support and of boots on the ground to beef up a front line where troops are still spread thinly.

But many fighters remain confident.

Standing outside his battalion’s base a recent afternoon, Wolverine said the conflict is a “test” of whether Ukraine can defend its statehood.

“This is a very serious thing,” he said.

As he spoke, an incoming mortar shell exploded several hundred yards away. 

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