Special Military Operation

In the very broad context of so-called hybrid wars, it is appropriate to define more precisely the coordinates of Special Operations, both by doctrine and by the practice that has emerged in the present day following, in particular, the start of the Special Military Operation between the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

Andrei Perla: Good afternoon, dear colleagues.

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine. The objectives of the Special Military Operation were the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, the elimination of the military threat coming from the Kiev regime to the Donbass republics (DPR and LPR). The conflict immediately took on a global character: NATO and EU countries, led by the United States, as well as New Zealand and Australia began providing military support to Ukraine, setting as their goal the military defeat of Russia. Sanctions were imposed against Moscow, its gold and foreign exchange reserves frozen, and Western business began to leave Russia. The Special Military Operation became a challenge for Russia itself, both militarily and politically, ideologically and economically.

In the days from 9 July to 2 August 2022, the 450th anniversary of the victory of the Russian army in the battle of Molodi occurs. In its meaning, this battle is comparable to the battle for Moscow in the Great Patriotic War. At least that's how the greatest contemporary specialist of the Russian Middle Ages, the historian Dmitry Volodikhin, considers it. As in 1941, in 1572 the very existence and geopolitical future of the Russian state was at stake. Now in the Special Military Operation in Ukraine, the stakes are just as high.