Five months after launching a short-lived raid across Ukraine’s northern border with Russia into the Russian border town of Tetkino, the Liberty of Russia Legion—Russians who fight for Ukraine—is at it again.
On Tuesday, legionnaires in American-made Stryker armored vehicles raced across the border into the town of Sudzha, 35 miles east of Tetkino. The pro-Ukrainian Russians swiftly knocked out a couple of T-62 tanks, took a few prisoners and shot down a Russian air force Kamov Ka-52 attack helicopter, reportedly killing its crew.
It’s all very dramatic—and also a shameful waste of precious military resources. At the same time, the Liberty of Russia Legion was mucking around in Sudzha, a town with practically no military value, and over-stretched Ukrainian brigades were retreating from Niu-York, a former Ukrainian stronghold just west of Horlivka in eastern Ukraine.
In Niu-York, “the enemy is applying pressure with a large infantry force, backed by aviation and artillery fire,” the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies reported. “The dense urban environment, where enemy infantry are hiding, is an advantage the enemy is exploiting.”
Yes, the terrain is favorable to the Russian attackers. Still, the defenders of Niu-York—led by the Ukrainian army’s 41st and 53rd Mechanized Brigades—surely would benefit from hundreds of reinforcements from, say, the same Liberty of Russia Legion that’s currently wasting its troops and ammunition collecting a few Russian prisoners in a border town no one expects Ukrainian forces to hold over the long term.
The Russian air force is already bombarding the Liberty of Russia Legion with Sukhoi Su-25 attack jets. Russian artillery destroyed a pair of Ukrainian Buk air-defense vehicles apparently supporting the cross-border action. Russian reserves are reportedly mobilizing.
It’s a familiar pattern. Pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters have launched many border raids throughout Russia’s 29-month wider war on Ukraine. None of these raids have resulted in Ukraine holding any new ground.
The Liberty of Russia Legion is almost certain to withdraw from Sudzha within days if not hours. Its cross-border raid will quickly become a tiny footnote in the much bigger story of the Russia-Ukraine war. Now imagine if the legion had helped the 41st and 53rd Mechanized Brigades hold Niu-York, instead.
It’s unclear who authorized the Sudzha raid and what their goals were. The Liberty of Russia Legion answers to the Ukrainian intelligence directorate in Kyiv but may have a lot of leeway to plan its own operations. It’s possible the legionnaires’ aims are mostly political rather than practical. That is, they’re trying to score propaganda points by “invading” Russia.
But it’s clear whoever green-lit the raid failed to appreciate Ukraine’s most urgent problem: a shortage of well-trained infantry—the unavoidable consequence of Ukraine’s failure to pass a mobilization law at the same time Russia undertook its own massive mobilization, last year.
Ukrainian lawmakers dithered for month, finally passing the mobilization law in April. “The enactment of Ukraine’s mobilization law was significantly delayed, and the mobilization of men has been insufficient,” wrote Joni Askola, a Finnish analyst.
“Ukraine could have strengthened its position on the front lines earlier, reducing territorial losses by mobilizing more troops, an undeniable reality,” Askola added. “Additionally, there are infantry shortages in many units, and Ukraine lacks units at the front and in reserve.”
In that context, it’s unforgivable for any Ukrainian or pro-Ukrainian commander to waste lives on a raid that, at best, has only fleeting propaganda value. Those hundreds of legionnaires should be defending in the east instead of adventuring in the north.
Sources:
1. Center for Defense Strategies: https://cdsdailybrief.substack.com/p/russias-war-on-ukraine-060824
2. War Vehicle Tracker: https://x.com/WarVehicle/status/1820826286614331464
3. Joni Askola: https://x.com/joni_askola/status/1819298751573643624
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