This is the story of the most successful counter-attack Ukraine has ever mounted that devastated Russia and clawed back 5,000 square miles of land in less than a month.
In the latest episode of Daily Mail’s Battle Board YouTube videos, Chris Pleasance visually maps the ins and outs of how Ukraine managed to gain back so much land so quickly.
In the late summer of 2022, Russia was trying to surround and destroy Ukraine’s main force in the Donbas in a grand encirclement from north, south and east.
Ukraine wanted to stop this, so planned a two-stage assault to break up the northern flank. First, a diversionary attack was launched on the city of Kherson, in the south.
That drew in some of Russia’s best units, before a second assault was launched eastwards out of the city of Kharkiv.
A force of 18,000 would wreak havoc behind enemy lines before spreading out into poorly defended areas in the north east in September 2022.
The Kharkiv offensive took place just seven months after the the country had been invaded by Russian troops in February 2022.
Ambushes, blockades and hot pursuits allowed paratroopers to capture a number of major cities.
In the latest episode of Daily Mail’s Battle Board YouTube videos, Chris Pleasance visually maps the ins and outs of how Ukraine managed to gain back so much land so quickly
A map indicates the state of Ukraine in August 2022 – the red parts being areas occupied by Russia
During the offensive, Ukraine would go on to re-take over 500 settlements and the blitzkrieg disrupted Russian supply lines significantly, hindering Russia’s operations in the war
It took Ukraine just a week to recapture more than 2000 sqm of land – about the size of the state of Delaware.
But they were not done yet.
Russia had somewhere in the region of 7,000 and 10,000 men spread out along their new front line.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces likely numbered more than 20,000 having suffered few casualties during the first attack.
They managed to break through.
During the offensive, Ukraine would go on to re-take over 500 settlements and the blitzkrieg disrupted Russian supply lines significantly, hindering Russia’s operations in the war.
The whole state of affairs also served as a morale boost for Ukraine.
