PARTISAN RESISTANCE TO PUTIN'S WAR GROWING IN UKRAINE, STARTING IN RUSSIA

The existence of such an anti-Putin group will worry the Kremlin.

- JOHN DOBSON

Stalemate. Six months into President Vladimir Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, this is the best word to describe the situation. Russian forces, sporting their halfswastika "Z", have made no progress in the East over the past few months, but are still murdering innocent Ukrainian citizens. On Wednesday, the 31st anniversary of Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union, a Russian rocket strike on the small town of Chaplyne in the Dnipropetrovsk region, killed 25 people and destroyed considerable civilian infrastructure. Russian forces in the South, especially around Kherson, are experiencing a Ukrainian fight-back, not only from Ukrainian forces, eager to take their land back from the invaders, but also from a growing number of Ukrainian partisans. This is a new development in the war and echoes the experience of the German Nazis occupying France during WW2, when large numbers of French partisans constantly harassed the invaders.

Partisan "behind the lines" activity, although extremely dangerous, aims to absorb the attention of an occupying army and slowly bleed its capacity and morale in preparation for conventional offensives that will eventually liberate that territory. So far, partisan resistance in Ukraine has ranged from the simple posting of leaflets threatening Russian soldiers, to the destruction of transport infrastructure and equipment. Ukrainian officials confirmed last week that partisans had a hand in a successful strike on a Russian air base in Crimea destroying eight fighter jets. Just as happened in Vichy France between 1940 and 1944, the Ukrainian partisan resistance movement is expanding and intensifying across a wider area of Russian-occupied territory, which will require Moscow to deploy yet more forces to control the lands they have illegally seized, adding to Russia's current woe-manpower.