A Year After The Russian Invasion Ukrainian Soldiers Are Sorcerer's Apprentices

Exactly one year ago, Russia invaded Ukraine with a huge force That Putin made the decision to invade came as a surprise to many.

After 12 months of war, there are even more unexpected twists We list four of them.

"There went Putin's plan for a blitzkrieg " Sorcerer's Apprentices.

That is how military historian Christ Klep calls the Ukrainian soldiers who have been fighting the Russians for a year It is a reference to the urge to quickly master the use of modern Western weaponry.

“And make it work better if necessary Ukrainians are quite knowledgeable about ICT.

This became apparent, for example, when the army received our armored howitzers Quite quickly, the Ukrainians started tinkering with the computer system of these vehicles.

They felt it was taking too long for the armored howitzer to fire So they took out the software and modified it.

It goes a lot faster now ” Especially after independence in the early 1990s, the Ukrainian army was not much, Klep assures.

“Rebuilding was the motto That had an advantage: they had to modernize.

Certainly in recent years, even with help from the West, this has been reasonably successful During the lean years they were forced to learn to improvise, soldiers had a lot of freedom to make their own decisions.

Not only the elite decide That makes an army agile and flexible in a war.

” But according to Christ Klep, patriotism is the main reason why this army is so tough to fight “They want to remain autonomous, don't touch their nation.

The strength that has been unleashed over the past year to maintain that freedom is incredible Compare it to the French Revolution.

Ukrainians are guided by a president who quickly turned out to be a powerful leader, because Volodomir Zelensky is certainly one of the biggest surprises of this war Thanks mainly to his efforts, Ukraine received 62 billion euros in military aid from the West last year.

Essential not to lose ” The Russian army also surprised.

In a negative sense Klep, who studied Russian Studies, among other things, said he fell off his chair when he saw the Russian military operations.

“Barely the ability to coordinate their land and air forces, the waves of attacks on the battlefield that kill thousands of soldiers and yield almost nothing Putin also undoubtedly couldn't believe his eyes, there went his plan for a blitzkrieg.

The management of this army seems to be nineteenth century They appear unable to modernize.

Sure, they have massiveness But the army is so centralized and corrupt that it bothers them.

Then it is difficult to fight against a thoroughly motivated enemy with modern weapon systems such as Himars ” Geoffrey Pyatt, the US Deputy Secretary of Energy, was asked last week by a journalist whether it is not time for the US and the EU to recognize that the (energy) sanctions against Russia are not working.

Pyatt denied that Putin was shooting himself in the foot by using energy as a weapon According to the International Energy Agency, Russian oil and gas revenues will be halved by 2030, which represents a huge blow to the economy.

Whether that forecast comes true remains to be seen Predictions that the Russian economy would collapse completely last year and perhaps shrink by as much as 20 percent have been dashed.

With a contraction of 'only' 2 5 percent, the economy appears to be quite resilient.

The IMF even forecasts growth of 0 3 percent this year.

This means that Russia is hardly doing worse than the EU (plus 0 7 percent) and better than the United Kingdom, where the economy is contracting again this year.

Even Putin was surprised by the figures, as recently appeared during a speech to his economic cabinet How is that possible? “Russia has – forced by Western sanctions – moved its important market for oil and gas to the East.

Countries like India, China, Turkey and Kazakhstan source much more fossil fuels from Russia As a result, exports remain at a reasonable level and prices are still high, which also makes a difference,” explains energy expert Hans van Cleef, affiliated with ABN Amro, explaining the survival of the Russian economy.

The bottom line: Russia has plenty of fallback options “In addition, they are also active on the black market with their fossil energy, there are always loopholes.

” “But it's not just about oil The direct export of Western technology to Russia may be prohibited, but that does not mean that the products will no longer end up on the Russian market.

Last summer something remarkable happened in Armenia: suddenly the import of smartphones increased tenfold At the same time, its export to Russia increased.

The same happened with washing machines and computer chips in other neighboring countries of Russia Countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Kazakhstan saw their exports to Russia explode.

” Still, in the longer term, Russia will have a harder time economically, thinks Van Cleef “Shell and BP have left, these companies were important with their technological knowledge in the development of new oil fields.

They will notice that, but the Russians have also shown that they can come up with alternatives to compensate for the lack ” The visit of US President Joe Biden to Poland this week not only had a symbolic meaning, it also says something about the growing importance of the Eastern European country.

Biden reiterated in Warsaw that the West (read: NATO) will not abandon Ukraine and that Russia will never win the war The Western unanimity – only Orbán's Hungary is increasingly sputtering against – can safely be called surprising.

Nato has been brought back to life, the EU quickly came across the bridge with enormous support packages by Brussels standards In this story, Poland in particular stands out as a country leading the way in the battle.

Poland is leading the way in Europe when it comes to supporting Ukraine, for example by increasing military support “The country is also growing strongly economically and is going to buy a lot of American weapons.

Poland is translating that economic power and growth into geopolitical power," David Criekemans, professor of international relations at the University of Antwerp, told VRT Nieuws According to the professor, it is not for nothing that Biden has already visited the country twice in a short time.

“At the same time, you also see that the European superpowers France and Germany find each other more difficult than before Poland is already positioning itself as one of the anchors of the Europe of the future.

Poland is actually a bit like the new Germany ” It could turn out, says military historian Christ Klep about the current role of the Eastern European country.

“Before the war, the EU was still very concerned about the violation of the Polish rule of law, but you hardly hear about that in Brussels anymore An Eastern European bloc is beginning to form that is doing well economically and has a clear focus on the West.

Countries such as Poland, Romania and Bulgaria have an alternative with NATO and the EU for their security and development They have embarked on a process of democratization that they would like Ukraine to join.

” Krzysztof Gierulski showed photos of residential flats in Irpin that had been heavily damaged by Russian attacks during a symposium of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) on the reconstruction of Ukraine Nothing can be seen of the blackened walls and broken windows when Gierulski shows in another photo that the flats have recently been refurbished and made more sustainable.

As a policy maker at the European Commission, the Pole is closely involved in European aid to Ukraine for reconstruction “I was also able to show pictures of President Zelensky and Ursula von der Leyen.

But we see enough of those two already It's about us working in parts of the country to help people return to their homes.

Houses that are also a lot better insulated than before the war ” It sounds surprising and illogical.

In the middle of a war already fully committed to reconstruction Nevertheless, according to PBL director André van Lammeren, it is good that it is happening.

“Recovery takes time Rebuilding also provides perspective and hope for the future.

People are getting their homes back ” More than 300,000 homes were destroyed or damaged in the past year, Ukraine wants to rebuild at least 23,000 homes this year.

Galyna Sukhomud, of New Housing Policy Ukraine, an organization dedicated to reconstruction, said during the symposium that the return of the many Ukrainians who had to flee the violence is essential for Ukraine's social and economic recovery “Rebuilding also gives us the opportunity to take a closer look at social housing.

That is an unknown phenomenon in our country Almost all houses were privately owned.

But many people have lost their property and have no money for a new home We will have to change the structure to make room for affordable housing.

” Jennes de Mol, Dutch ambassador in Kiev, spoke at the PBL meeting last week about a huge challenge for the Ukrainians “They come from far away, their housing policy still has a Soviet structure.

But we have seen in the past year that Ukrainians can learn and anticipate quickly The fact that, despite all the misery of the war, they are already focusing on reconstruction fits in with that picture.

” spoke at the PBL meeting last week about a huge challenge for the Ukrainians “They come from far away, their housing policy still has a Soviet structure.

But we have seen in the past year that Ukrainians can learn and anticipate quickly The fact that, despite all the misery of the war, they are already focusing on reconstruction fits in with that picture.

” spoke at the PBL meeting last week about a huge challenge for the Ukrainians “They come from far away, their housing policy still has a Soviet structure.

But we have seen in the past year that Ukrainians can learn and anticipate quickly The fact that, despite all the misery of the war, they are already focusing on reconstruction fits in with that picture.

”.