Infiltration, Instruction, Invasion
Russia’s War in Ukraine
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
In early April 2014, Russia launched an operation to destabilize Ukraine. In a first phase, members of the special forces and officers from the secret services helped criminals from the Donbas and Russian nationalists from Russia to seize power in several Donbas cities. Starting in mid-May, former combatants from the wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya as well as politicized members of imperial organisations who had been recruited via draft boards poured into Ukraine. When the Ukrainian Army succeeded in disrupting supply lines from Russia into the Donbas, Moscow deployed regular formations in the second week of August. They pushed back the Ukrainian Army and forced the extremely fragile ceasefire. Russia achieved a military victory. But the political result of this war is completely open.
(Osteuropa 8/2014, pp. 3–16)