Soviet Withdrawal From Afghanistan - Intense Combat Footage of Soviet-Afghan War's End (1988–1990)

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On 15 February 1989, Lieutenant General Boris Gromov became the last Soviet soldier to leave Afghanistan, bringing an end to the Soviet–Afghan War. The military fanfare that accompanied Gromov’s journey over the “Bridge of Friendship" into Soviet Uzbekistan aimed to divert attention away from what had, over nine years, amounted to a costly and futile military campaign and humanitarian catastrophe. Following the signing of the Geneva accords in April 1988, news of the Soviet withdrawal was met with jubilation among the various factions of Afghanistan’s mujahideen, whose dogged guerrilla resistance had harassed the occupying forces of the USSR since the invasion of December 1979. With the United States providing financial and military support to the mujahideen insurgency, the conflict had become a proxy for the Cold War competition between the world's superpowers. International observers had little faith that the Soviet-backed Marxist regime of Mohammad Najibullah would survive without the support of his superpower sponsor.

Presented here is a compilation of news footage covering the Soviet withdrawal and its aftermath, from the signing of the Geneva accords in April 1988 through to the one year anniversary of Soviet departure. Over the final two years of a war that resulted in somewhere between 1 and 3 million dead, ITN covered the the military, diplomatic, and humanitarian aspects of the conflict. Between 850,000 and 2 million civilians died as a
result of the Soviet-Afghan War, many from starvation and
disease amid the breakdown of Afghanistan’s
national infrastructure. A further 7 million Afghans were displaced. It would take two more years of civil war and the
dissolution of the USSR for the
Najibullah regime to collapse.

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00:00:00 Introduction
00:03:53 14 April 1988 - Geneva Accords (News at Ten)
00:07:15 Moscow citizens react to news of withdrawal
00:09:25 11 May 1988 - Withdrawal begins
00:24:24 13 May 1988 - Behind the lines with mujahideen
00:27:20 14 May 1988 - Life in Kabul
00:28:40 15 May 1988 - Parade of defeat
00:30:49 15 May 1988 - Refugee camps of Pakistan
00:32:37 19 May 1988 - Soviet casualty figures released
00:33:37 11 May 1988 - Mujahideen of Kandahar
00:38:55 15 July 1988 - Afghanistan's internal problems
00:40:13 22 August 1988 - Report from Peshawar, Pakistan
00:45:11 7 November 1988 - Revolution Day in Moscow
00:46:38 13–16 January 1989 - Crisis in Kabul
01:08:58 19 January 1989 - Western embassies closing down
01:13:22 20 January 1989 - Kabul rocket attack
01:15:31 23 January 1989 - Soviet soldiers depart Kabul airport
01:22:30 25 January 1989 - Kabul's food supply crisis
01:27:14 27–30 January 1989 - UK and US diplomatic withdrawal
01:36:31 31 January 1989 - Soviet army withdrawing under fire
01:38:25 1 February 1989 - Afghan forces of the Najibullah regime
01:39:44 Interview with Richard Murphy (Former Asst. Secretary of State)
01:42:19 2–3 February 1989 - Snowstorms slow withdrawal
01:46:19 5 February 1989 - Soviet convoy departs Afghanistan
01:48:52 Najibullah rally in Kabul
01:50:17 6–7 February 1989 - Sandy Gall's Afghanistan Journal
02:03:38 Elite forces of the Najibullah regime
02:05:50 8 February 1989 - Role of Iran
02:11:57 Mujahideen closing on Jalalabad
02:16:04 9 February 1989 - Kabul under siege
02:17:19 Report from mujahideen-controlled Afghanistan-Pakistan border
02:19:57 11 Feb 1989 - Battle for Salang Highway
02:21:15 12 Feb 1989 - Soviet forces handover control of Kabul airport
02:22:25 15 February 1989 - Last Soviet forces leave Afghanistan
02:32:40 Sandy Gall with mujahideen outside Jalalabad
02:38:20 20 February 1989 - Mujahideen closing on Kabul
02:39:35 10 March 1989 - Mujahideen establish Afghan Interim Government
02:41:01 11–23 March 1989 - Battle of Jalalabad
02:47:49 12 April 1989 - Mujahideen advance on Kandahar
02:52:23 8 November 1989 - Kabul under siege
02:56:17 10 November 1989 - Battle for Salang Highway
02:58:19 6 December 1989 - Sandy Gall interviews Ahmad Shah Masoud
03:04:19 7 December 1989 - Sandy Gall reports from Taloqan
03:07:14 9 February 1990 - Kabul under siege
03:09:52 15 February 1990 - Afghanistan one year after Soviet withdrawal
03:13:08 Epilogue

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