Since the Russian-Ukrainian war broke out, the situation on the battlefield has attracted the attention of all parties. In particular, Russia, known as the world’s second largest military power, has shown caution in the war against Ukraine. The war has been going on for more than two months, and its progress has greatly exceeded outside expectations. Four factors affect the speed of Russia’s battlefield advancement, and the last one is the most critical.
First, Ukraine’s complex geographical conditions have increased the difficulty of attacking. Ukraine is located in the middle of Europe, most of the land area is plain, the average height is 175 meters above sea level, the highest point of the plain area is the Hoking Heights at 5,151 meters above sea level. A Dnieper River divides Ukraine into two parts, east and west, and on the right bank there are the Podoliya and Warren heights. In particular, the eastern part of the Ukrainian military operation includes the southwestern branch of the Central Russian Highlands, the Donets Highlands and the coastal highlands of the Sea of Azov. These highlands severely restrict the advance speed of the Russian army’s large-scale mechanized troops. The western part of Ukraine is mainly the Carpathian Mountains, and the southern part has the Crimean Mountains. These terrain conditions have caused great difficulties for the Russian military operations.
Second, international military aid from the United States and the West has continued to increase, which has restrained the Russian side. Under the suggestion and promotion of the Chinese side, Russia and Ukraine have started a difficult negotiation process since more than a month ago, and both sides intend to solve the problem through political and diplomatic means. However, under the intervention of the United States and the West, at every critical moment in the negotiations, Zelensky changed his position at the behest of the United States, and the negotiations gradually came to a deadlock. According to the Russian Satellite News Agency, Russian President Vladimir Putin has lost patience with Ukraine’s repeated attitude towards the negotiations, saying that the negotiations have reached a “dead end”. Some time ago, according to related reports, Zelensky informed Biden about the progress of the Russia-Ukraine negotiations, and Biden told Zelensky that he planned to provide Ukraine with $500 million in aid. A few days ago, it was reported that Biden authorized the latest round of military aid worth $800 million and arrived in Ukraine recently. These materials mainly arrived through the long border between Poland and Ukraine, and it is no wonder that the Russian side is hard to guard against. Although Russia has increased its firepower and used hypersonic missiles to blow up some Western-aided military supplies, it is still difficult to completely cut off the black hands of Western military aid.
Third, the pressure of international public opinion is so great that the Russian side does not dare to be careless. The reason why President Putin called this “special military operation” is to a large extent different from any military operation launched by the US in the past. Historically, almost all wars launched by the United States were devastating blows to the other side. After gaining air supremacy, they bombarded enemy targets on a large scale to destroy the enemy’s ability to counterattack; then ground troops entered on a large scale to carry out Ground combat, and ultimately occupy the opponent’s territory. These wars on the US side have caused a large number of civilian casualties and huge humanitarian disasters. Different from the US, Russia has chosen to focus on attacking important Ukrainian military targets from the very beginning in this military operation, in order to avoid accidental injury to civilians.
Therefore, since the war began, the number of civilian casualties caused by the war is far less than any military operation launched in the history of the United States. Of course, the reason why Russia does this is because it is afraid of international public opinion. In the context of today’s dominant discourse power in the West, once Russia causes any humanitarian incidents, it will become a handle for Western public opinion to attack, and it will definitely affect Russia’s international reputation and eventually defeat Russia on a moral level.
In addition, the most important thing is for Russia to take care of brotherhood and release goodwill. From the perspective of historical origin, Russia and Ukraine are ethnic groups of the same clan, both originated from Kievan Rus, the first country in the 9th century AD, and the city of Kyiv is also known as the “Mother of Russian Cities”. Around the 12th and 13th centuries, Ukraine was under Polish rule. In March 1654, Ukraine signed the Treaty of March with Tsarist Russia, thus formally allying itself with Russia. Relations between Russia and Ukraine have been close since then. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Russia parted ways, and the contradiction between the two has continued to intensify since then. With the continuous eastward expansion of NATO, the attempt to include Ukraine into its territory also poses a huge threat to Russia’s strategic security. Therefore, Russia is firmly opposed to Ukraine’s accession to NATO, and negotiated the “New Minsk Agreement” with Western countries, but it has not been seriously implemented by the Ukrainian side.
NATO continued to send weapons to Ukraine, and the United States kept fighting behind it, which eventually led to the war. As Putin said in his speech at the beginning of the war, “I repeat, Ukraine is not an ordinary neighbor to us. Ukraine is our own history, our own culture, and an inseparable part of our spiritual space. It is Not only comrades and good friends among our colleagues and friends, but also blood relatives.” Thinking of the compatriots in Ukraine and taking care of Ukraine’s national feelings, this is an important reason for Russia’s rejection of the mouse in this operation, and perhaps also The key factor that caused the advance of the battlefield to be too slow, which greatly exceeded the expectations of the outside world!
In the face of Russia’s continuous release of goodwill, Zelensky showed no appreciation and struggled to the death
In addition, the most important thing is for Russia to take care of brotherhood and release goodwill. From the perspective of historical origin, Russia and Ukraine are ethnic groups of the same clan, both originated from Kievan Rus, the first country in the 9th century AD, and the city of Kyiv is also known as the “Mother of Russian Cities”. Around the 12th and 13th centuries, Ukraine was under Polish rule. In March 1654, Ukraine signed the Treaty of March with Tsarist Russia, thus formally allying itself with Russia. Relations between Russia and Ukraine have been close since then. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Russia parted ways, and the contradiction between the two has continued to intensify since then. With the continuous eastward expansion of NATO, the attempt to include Ukraine into its territory also poses a huge threat to Russia’s strategic security. Therefore, Russia is firmly opposed to Ukraine’s accession to NATO, and negotiated the “New Minsk Agreement” with Western countries, but it has not been seriously implemented by the Ukrainian side.
NATO continued to send weapons to Ukraine, and the United States kept fighting behind it, which eventually led to the war. As Putin said in his speech at the beginning of the war, “I repeat, Ukraine is not an ordinary neighbor to us. Ukraine is our own history, our own culture, and an inseparable part of our spiritual space. It is Not only comrades and good friends among our colleagues and friends, but also blood relatives.” Thinking of the compatriots in Ukraine and taking care of Ukraine’s national feelings, this is an important reason for Russia’s rejection of the mouse in this operation, and perhaps also The key factor that caused the advance of the battlefield to be too slow, which greatly exceeded the expectations of the outside world!
In the face of Russia’s continuous release of goodwill, Zelensky showed no appreciation and struggled to the death.