People all around the world are marveling at the courage and resourcefulness of the Ukrainian people. When it comes to the latter, here's a pretty good example.
People asked in the Mud and Truck maintenance threads earlier what the Ukrainians could do to make the rasputisa mud worse.
— Trent Telenko (@TrentTelenko) March 5, 2022
They opened the Kyiv reservoir to accomplish just that.
The Russians pushed three Tank/Mech divisions into a flood plain the Ukrainians flooded https://t.co/39SCHaOZwd
Rasputisa is the Russian word for muddy roads that hinder travel in the fall and spring. So if this story is true, Ukrainians have made it almost impossible for heavy tanks to enter Kyiv by opening a reservoir north of the city to halt their progress.
Nothing speaks to the courage of the Ukrainian people more than this video:
Ukrainians march towards Russian soldiers while getting shot at. Everyone must watch this video. pic.twitter.com/gclsykDS9P
— Anastasiia Lapatina (@lapatina_) March 5, 2022
Rep. Ted Lieu retweeted that video with the comment, "Watch this 15 second video and you will understand why Russia will never win the war in Ukraine."
According to reports, it is this kind of courage and resourcefulness that has hindered Vladimir Putin's plans to win this war against Ukraine in a matter of days. While still causing untold suffering and death, his troops are disorganized, hungry, and out of fuel.
But Putin shouldn't have been surprised by this reaction from the Ukrainian people. Here's why: in 2013, the country was poised to enter into a political association and free trade agreement with the European Union (EU). But at the last minute, Putin's puppet President Viktor Yanukovych, refused to sign the agreement, instead choosing closer ties to Russia.
That is when the Euromaiden protests began. It all started with young people gathering with chants of "Ukraine is part of Europe." When police responded by beating the protesters to clear the square, people of all ages and from all over Ukraine joined the protest with shouts of "All together we are strong." Things escalated from there.
Evgeny Afineevsky captured the 93-day protest in the documentary titled "Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom" (now available for streaming on both Netflix and YouTube). He talked about the experience here:
Nancy, I so respect your writing and this column once again demonstrates the depths of your research and emphases on humanitarian issues in this war. 'Rasputisa' is a unique phrase that so reflects the ingenuity of the Ukrainian people. But, the short video of Ukrainians marching directly into potential lethal gunfire is frighteningly uplifting. In a way it's like marching across the Pettus bridge into the face of baton-swinging troopers. You know what's coming and the price is worth paying.
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