Winter Freeze? The Ukraine War Is Only Going to Heat Up
Cold conditions are actually good for mechanized warfare, and Ukraine feels an urgency to make further gains.
Soviets in the snow.
Source: Hulton Archive via Getty Images
Moscow was the focus of some of the biggest battles of World War II, arguably more decisive for the outcome than the Soviet victory at Stalingrad. In 1941, the Germans raced for Stalin’s capital city; they were checked and finally driven back, a strategic reversal from which Hitler’s war machine never recovered.
Much of this fighting took place in November and December, the depth of the Russian winter, amid snow and ice that froze German guns, tank turrets and aircraft engines, not to mention people. Yet the war went on, and the Russians turned the tide partly because they proved vastly better equipped for the conditions than were their enemies.