‘Ukraine destroying the myth of Russian military strength’

The myth about the “great Russian army, second in the world” was totally destroyed when Ukrainian Armed forces defeated the Russian army in the successful attack against the Russian Black Sea fleet missile cruiser “Moskva”, writes Roman Rukomeda.

Roman Rukomeda is a Ukrainian political analyst. This is his 41st account of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which he succeeded to send to EURACTIV despite war-time hardships. 

The 49th day of war is coming to an end. Ukraine continues to resist and successfully counter-attack the Russian invasion. Today, Russia, which positioned itself as the “second army in the world”, lost almost one-third of its best-trained soldiers and officers and unique equipment, including special tanks, armoured vehicles, planes, helicopters, artillery, etc.

To restore the losses Russia suffered in Ukraine during 49 days of the war, it will need many years and efforts as the sanctions will not allow it to have access to western technologies. For example, the only plants manufacturing tanks and rockets in Russia have already stopped because they do not have enough components from western companies, especially electronics.

However, the myth about the “great Russian army, second in the world” was destroyed in Ukraine. First, our young 20-years old boys from the National Guard did not allow elite Russian special forces to capture and hold the airport in Gostomil (about 20 km from Kyiv) to receive a massive amount of airborne troops and planes. This scenario did not work, and though Gostomil was captured, it was heavily damaged, and no planes could land there. From this point, the Russian planned blitzkrieg against Ukraine started to fail.

In Gostomil, the biggest aeroplane in the world – AN 225 “Mriya” (Dream) was burned. It is hard to believe, but after Ukrainian forces liberated Gostomil from Russian invaders and found destroyed “Mriya”, they managed to launch one of the remaining engines. The burned aeroplane delivered the message that it is destroyed but not conquered and has a chance to revive.

It gives Ukrainians confidence about rebuilding the biggest aeroplane in the world. The Antonov company has already started the process of fundraising money for rebuilding the aeroplane, and everyone can join it and make their contribution.

Another great example of the Ukrainian army defeating the supposedly strong Russian military is the successful attack on the Russian Black Sea fleet missile cruiser “Moskva” near Ukrainian Snake island by Ukrainian “Neptun” rockets.

This ship destroyed Ukrainian border guards in the first days of the war. All Wednesday night was full of messages on Ukrainian social media that “we finally hit and burned Moscow”. The thing is that this ship was considered the most modern and technologically developed in the whole Black Sea fleet of Russia.

Many times, Russian experts were saying that it is impossible to destroy such a ship by rockets because of heavily developed anti-aircraft systems. And now Ukraine, which almost lost all its fleet, managed to sink the Russian navy pride.

You also have the case of the Ukrainian army’s liberation of the Kyiv region from all elite airborne troops and special forces that were considered the best in the Russian army. The genuine plan of Russian terrorists was to hold a deep defence around Kyiv to preserve the chance for the attack on the Ukrainian capital. But they did not manage to stand against Ukrainian Armed Forces and had to run back to Russia, leaving their dead bodies on the ground and plundering and looting Ukrainian houses before the final escape.

Ukrainians have shown that Russian strength and military superpower is a myth and an empty bubble when the whole nation is standing against them.