Logotyp: till Försvarshögskolans hemsida

Europe is once again a theatre of a major war, beginning on the 24th of February 2022 with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Hopelessly outnumbered the Ukrainians have proven them themselves a worthy opponent of the regional hegemon Russia. In the fall of 2022, the Ukrainians served Putin his greatest defeat thus far with a counteroffensive which liberated Kherson and all Ukrainian territory west of the Dnepr.

The goal of this thesis is to examine the Ukrainian counteroffensive and how Ukraine managed to achieve success at the tactical level. The thesis does this by studying available information about the counteroffensive and analysing it with the help of manoeuvre warfare theories and satellite imagery.

The thesis shows that Ukrainian tactical success during the Kherson counteroffensive can be attributed to their use of combined arms and the fact that surprise was achieved. However, it is worth noting that other factors may have contributed to Ukrainian tactical success and that more information about the counteroffensive may become available with time.