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Anti-colonial hybrid defence: how Ukraine’s resistance fights in the occupied territories

Between 2022 and 2025 Ukraine’s resistance managed to inflict persistent losses and disruption on Russian forces in the occupied territories. The kinds of operation – from bombs and bullets to spies and sabotage as well as raids and ambushes – show a comprehensive guerrilla strategy aimed at eroding the occupier’s control. Ukrainian partisans first blunted the occupation through fear and attrition and later became an integral part of Ukraine’s broader hybrid defence strategy to reclaim its territory.

“Join the ranks of Atesh – we call on every conscious person who is ready to help us defeat the occupiers to join our ranks,” reads a leaflet from Ukraine’s partisan movement. The leaflet was not distributed in Crimea, where Atesh – meaning “Fire” in the Crimean Tatar language – originated. Nor was it distributed in Mariupol, Berdyansk, Donetsk or Luhansk, where Atesh’s partisans have struck and continue to strike.

May 6, 2025 - Omar Ashour - Hot TopicsIssue 3 2025Magazine

Photo: Dmytro Sheremeta / Shutterstock

It was distributed in Samara, a Russian city on the Volga river, more than 1,200 kilometres from the borders of Ukraine. It was a bold display of the resistance’s reach and confidence.

Over the past eleven years – especially since Putin’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022 – Ukraine’s partisan movements have evolved from loosely coordinated, under-resourced efforts into an expansive, multi-domain, hybrid defence force that fuses covert action with conventional strength across all five of Ukraine’s partially or fully occupied regions, from southern Crimea to northern Luhansk. Partisan operations have also reached deep into the Russian Federation, disrupting rear-area security and exposing vulnerabilities in Moscow’s war machine.

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