<P> The Cossacks had been unable to organize and capitalize on their successes at the end of 1918 . By 1919 they had begun to run short of supplies . Consequently, when the Soviet counteroffensive began in January 1919 under the Bolshevik leader Antonov - Ovseenko, the Cossack forces rapidly fell apart . The Red Army captured Kiev on 3 February 1919 . </P> <P> Gen. Denikin's military strength continued to grow in the spring of 1919 . During several months in winter and spring of 1919, hard fighting with doubtful outcomes took place in the Donbass, where the attacking Bolsheviks met White forces . At the same time Denikin's Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR) completed the elimination of Red forces in the northern Caucasus and advanced towards Tsaritsyn . At the end of April and beginning of May the AFSR attacked on all fronts from the Dnepr to the Volga, and by the beginning of the summer they had won numerous battles . French forces landed in Odessa but, after having done almost no fighting, withdrew on 8 April 1919 . By mid-June the Reds were chased from the Crimea and the Odessa area . Denikin's troops took the cities of Kharkov and Belgorod . At the same time White troops under Wrangel's command took Tsaritsyn on 17 June 1919 . On 20 June Denikin issued his Moscow directive, ordering all AFSR units to prepare for a decisive offensive to take Moscow . </P> <P> Although Great Britain had withdrawn its own troops from the theater, it continued to give significant military aid (money, weapons, food, ammunition and some military advisors) to the White Armies during 1919 . Major Ewen Cameron Bruce of the British Army had volunteered to command a British tank mission assisting the White Army . He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his bravery during the June 1919 battle of Tsaritsyn for single - handedly storming and capturing the fortified city of Tsaritsyn, under heavy shell fire in a single tank; this led to the capture of over 40,000 prisoners . The fall of Tsaritsyn is viewed "as one of the key battles of the Russian Civil War" which greatly helped the White Russian cause . Notable historian Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart comments that Bruce's tank action during this battle is to be seen as "one of the most remarkable feats in the whole history of the Tank Corps". </P> <P> After the capture of Tsaritsyn, Wrangel pushed towards Saratov but Trotsky, seeing the danger of the union with Kolchak, against whom the Red command was concentrating large masses of troops, repulsed his attempts with heavy losses . When Kolchak's army in the east began to retreat in June and July, the bulk of the Red Army, free now from any serious danger from Siberia, was directed against Denikin . </P>

What was the result of the russian civil war