By Clare BYRNE
PARIS, Feb 21, 2024 (AFP) – From the town of Avdiivka, which fell to Russian forces in February after a brutal battle that recalled the fight for Bakhmut, to Valery Zaluzhny, the popular army chief who was fired by Zelensky, here are some of the words that defined year two of the war in Ukraine.
A – AVDIIVKA
The capture of the eastern town of Avdiivka — the biggest win for Russian forces since they seized Bakhmut in May 2023 — was a major victory for President Vladimir Putin in the run-up to elections in Russia.
Avdiivka had become a new symbol of Ukrainian resistance during Moscow’s months-long onslaught on the town which it had had been trying to take since a Russian-backed rebellion began in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
But the outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainians were eventually forced to pull out of the ruined town, where under 1,000 residents remained out of a pre-war population of around 30,000.
C – COUNTEROFFENSIVE
Armed with billions of dollars in Western weapons, Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive finally got underway in the east in June 2023.
But the sprawling 1,000-kilometre (625 mile) frontline barely budged, with Ukraine failing to punch a hole through Russian defences.
With no end to the war in sight, Republican lawmakers in the United States have blocked new aid to Ukraine but European Union leaders have approved a new 50-billion-euro ($54 billion) package of assistance.
D – DRAFT
Ukraine’s armed forces are desperate for more soldiers to boost their dwindling ranks and reprieve exhausted frontline troops.
The military says it needs up to half a million people.
A controversial bill making its way through parliament contains stiffer penalties for draft dodgers and lowers the age of service.
I – ‘I AM RUSSIAN’
The title of one of Russia’s big patriotic tunes, by Kremlin-backed popstar Shaman.
The blond singer performed the tune, which celebrates being Russian “in spite of the world”, for troops in Mariupol and also headlined a concert in Moscow to celebrate Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian territories.
M – ‘MOPEDS’
Ukrainians’ nickname for the buzzing Iranian-made attack drones that Russia launches in waves at Kyiv and other cities.
On land and sea, drones have become a defining feature of the war, with Moscow and Kyiv both racing to develop new, more powerful models for reconnaissance, attacks or intercepting the enemy’s fleet.
“This war will be won thanks to drones,” Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, told AFP in November.
P – PATRIOTS
US-made Patriot missile defence systems have been a game-changer for Ukraine, helping it intercept large numbers of missiles and killer drones fired at its cities.
Kyiv has even used them to take down hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, which the Kremlin had dubbed “invincible”.
Pleading last month for more Patriots, Zelensky said that without them, Ukraine would find it “impossible to survive”.
W – WAGNER
The paramilitary group, which was central to Russia’s campaign in Ukraine, was at the centre of an extraordinary showdown last year when its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, a longtime Putin ally, staged a mutiny against Moscow’s military leadership and began a march on Moscow.
Within weeks, Prigozhin was dead, killed along with most of Wagner’s leadership in a mystery plane crash, and the group was broken up.
But the shadow of Wagner still looms large over West Africa, where it won lucrative security contracts with military regimes that Russia has sought to preserve.
Z – ZALUZHNY
The man credited with the Ukrainian army’s stunning success in holding out against a vastly more powerful Russian military at the outset of the war, the armed forces’ popular commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny was fired in early February.
Zelensky removed the so-called “iron general” from his post over last year’s failed counter-offensive, saying “urgent changes” were needed.
The general had been in Zelensky’s sights since saying late last year that the conflict had reached a “stalemate”, which Zelensky denied.
