Slaget om Hostomel : En anlays utifrån operativ och taktisk nivå

Sammanfattning

The Battle of Hostomel took place on 24 February 2022 and was part of Russia’s broader operation to seize Ukraine’s capital. Russia’s failure to quickly secure Hostomel ultimately enabled Ukraine to build up a defense around its capital and resulted in a strategic failure for Russia. The battle raises questions regarding asymmetric warfare and how a militarily weaker actor can prevail against a stronger opponent. Previous research has demonstrated that small states can win against a stronger opponent but has primarily focused on the strategic level. Furthermore, the research on the war in Ukraine acknowledges that it is in an early stage and emphasizes the need for further study. This study aims to fill the research gap by analyzing the battle of Hostomel through the application of Pashakhanlou’s principles from The Underdog’s Model, to generate further understanding about the outcome of the battle from an operational and tactical perspective. The study is designed as a case study using secondary sources related to the war in Ukraine. The findings indicate that the outcome can be understood as a result of Ukraine’s ability to disturb the Russian operational plan and generate coherent effects across multiple principles, such as creativity, dispersion and concentration of force and attacks on vulnerable military targets, whereas Russia only managed to generate isolated effects within individual principles.