Ukrainian commandos have left their mark on the war after years of fighting

When Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian Armed Forces into Ukraine in February 2022 there were likely few armchair generals and war analysts that could have predicted how much modern war would change.

Modern technology has given individual soldiers the power to destroy big, expensive military equipment like multi-million dollar armored vehicles and anti-aircraft missile systems with comparatively cheap drones.

Fighting in Ukraine has revealed time and again that warfare in the modern age is nothing like it was before the Digital Revolution. However, there are some aspects of the conflict that look just as familiar as the strategies and tactics of World War Two. 

Heavy artillery barrages and the bombing of key military installations have been reminiscent of the tactics waged in the Second World War. But the fundamental principles of warfare, to “unhinge and dislocate” your enemy hasn’t changed according to The Telegraph. 

Moreover, the oldest form of warfare, that of the clandestine special operators who drop in behind enemy lines to “create confusion, fear, and logistical mayhem,” is an aspect of the present in Ukraine, The Telegraph’s Hamish De Bretton-Gordon explained. 

Ukrainian special operators have been hard at work throughout the conflict and they’ve proven to be worth their weight in gold because of the countless successful campaigns they’ve waged to take down some of Russia’s most prized weapons. 

Take for example a successful mission in the summer of 2023 to recapture two oil platforms in the Black Sea 25 miles off the coast of Snake Island. Ukrainian commandos have been shaping the war and helping Kyiv reach even greater success against Russia. 

Forbes reported that the commandos boarded the drilling platforms and were able to capture a radar station and some rockets before they had to defend themselves from a Russian Sukhoi Su-30 fighter bomber intent on destroying them. 

One Ukrainian commando allegedly used a man-portable anti-aircraft missile to damage the Russian fighter-bomber, which forced it to fly off, leaving the Ukrainians in control of the oil platform and making the Black Sea a more dangerous place for Russia’s Navy. 

“In dismantling Russia’s defensive architecture in the western Black Sea, Ukraine is making it more and more dangerous for the surviving vessels of the bottled-up Russian Black Sea Fleet to operate anywhere near the Ukrainian coast,” Forbes explained. 

Other commando operations during 2023 Ukraine's counter-offensive proved just as fruitful in their aim to sow chaos and confusion as Kyiv’s capture of the Boyko Towers platform, and a good example was a special operations raid into the very heart of occupied Crimea.

Commandos staged a symbolic raid on Russian forces defending the peninsula during Ukraine's Independence Day in the first ground attack against Crimea of its kind since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. 

A statement from Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence revealed that the commandos used speedboats to land near the settlements of Olenivka and Mayak, after which the special operations soldiers attacked Russian positions and destroyed some equipment. 

The report noted no commandos were lost in the encounter and added that the soldiers left a Ukrainian flag flying on the occupied peninsula before they departed and returned to friendly territory. 

“Those are our guys,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in reference to the raid during one of the nation’s Independence Day ceremonies in the country’s capital city. “We will not lose our grip on Ukrainian independence,” he added, Bloomberg reported.  

The day before the daring raid on Crimea occurred, special forces teams allegedly knocked out one of Russia’s prized S-400 air defense missile systems near the town of Olenivka according to Politico, which may have helped Ukrainian soldiers successfully raid the peninsula. 

“Given the limited number of such complexes in the enemy’s arsenal, this is a painful blow to the air defense system of the occupiers, which will have a serious impact on further events in the occupied Crimea,” military intelligence explained in a statement.

Therein lies the value of Ukraine's special forces. Just like thousands of soldiers before them, Kyiv’s commandos are at the cutting edge of creating confusion, fear, and logistical issues—all things that will help Ukraine as it looks to push Russia out of the country.