A Brief History
On September 6, 2022, Ukrainian military forces conducted a surprise counter-offensive against the much larger and better equipped Russian forces that had invaded Ukraine in February of 2022, a continuation of the land grab Russia had illegally begun against their neighbor by seizing the Crimea in 2014. Not only did Ukraine resist the Russian invasion of 2022, but the counter-offensive of September also resulted in Ukraine regaining over 3000 square kilometers of previously lost territory. As the Russia-Ukraine war grinds toward 2025, the haughty Russians, previously believed to be a juggernaut of military power, has still failed to win a war they had expected to last mere days or weeks at the longest.
Digging Deeper
Russia is no stranger to being militarily humiliated by smaller countries in war, including the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 and the fiasco of the 1939-1940 Winter War against Finland, when the much smaller Finnish forces repelled an invasion by their enormous neighbor that had tried to take advantage of the German war against Europe started in 1939.
The disaster of the Afghanistan War by Soviet forces from 1979 to 1989 had a large part to do with the disintegration of the USSR when the enormous Soviet/Russian military machine was unable to subdue the tiny and obsolete forces of Afghan tribesmen. In fact, Russia, despite being the largest country in the world and supposedly one of the mightiest, has lost at least 19 wars going back to 1558.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: What is Russia’s worst defeat?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Galeotti, Mark. Forged in War: A military history of Russia from its beginnings to today. Osprey Publishing, 2024.
Hourly History. Russo-Japanese War: A History from Beginning to End. Hourly History, 2022.
