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Why Ukraine Is Winning
The Atlantic ^ | APRIL 8, 2022 | Phillips Payson O’Brien

Posted on 04/19/2022 2:13:00 AM PDT by GonzoII

Ukraine’s success illuminates a strategy that has allowed a smaller state to—so far—outlast a larger and much more powerful one. Battles reveal more than they decide. Battles in which the outcome is truly up for grabs are rare, and battles that prove decisive in achieving a political goal are rarer still. Instead, battles demonstrate how effectively combatants planned, prepared, and executed before the fighting began. The result of a battle exposes not only how well matched the sides are but also how the war might unfold in the future. In that sense, the outcome of the Battle of Kyiv was never in doubt. Russia’s and Ukraine’s preparations for the fight essentially preordained the result. But the Battle of Kyiv has revealed a great deal about why Ukraine has done so much better in the war than many analysts predicted. How and why Ukrainian forces outperformed expectations is perhaps the most important story of this war. A close look at Ukraine’s successes illuminates a strategy that has allowed a smaller state to—so far—outlast a larger and much more powerful one. Call it the “Ukrainian way of war.”

The Ukrainian way of war is a coherent, intelligent, and well-conceived strategy to fight the Russians, one well calibrated to take advantage of specific Russian weaknesses. It has allowed the Ukrainians to maintain mobility, helped force the Russians into static positions for long periods by fouling up their logistics, opened up the Russians to high losses from attrition, and, in the Battle of Kyiv, led to a victory that has completely recast the political endgame of the Russian invasion. The original maximalist Russian attempt to seize all of Ukraine has been drastically scaled back to a far more limited effort aimed at seizing territory in the east and south of the country....


(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: agitprop; atlanticagitprop; atlanticlibtardnews; chechens; chechnya; dualcitizenoligarchs; europe; homoglobalcabal; hopium; nazisaredoomed; putinsbuttboys; putinworshippers; russia; russianaggression; ukenazis; ukraine; uselessthread; zottherussiantrolls
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"About the author: Phillips Payson O’Brien is a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He is the author of How the War Was Won: Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II."

;0)

1 posted on 04/19/2022 2:13:00 AM PDT by GonzoII
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To: GonzoII

“The Battle of Kyiv”?


2 posted on 04/19/2022 2:18:47 AM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: GonzoII

Right


3 posted on 04/19/2022 2:26:38 AM PDT by wardaddy (Faulkner never knew Free Republic but he coined its nickname...The Sound and The Fury)
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To: GonzoII

They speak as if it is over

and declare victory when their entire country is in ruins,

It isn’t over until it’s finished


4 posted on 04/19/2022 2:35:11 AM PDT by LurkingSince'98 (Ad Majoram Dei Gloriam = FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD)
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To: GonzoII

Ukraine hasn’t won.
Russia ha#nt either.
It just drags on….. endangering the world because the Russians battle plans were stupid.

Russia believes they can take more territory, then there will be peace. Another Russia concept that is stupid. There will never be peace unless they take all of Ukraine, or withdraw.


5 posted on 04/19/2022 3:19:31 AM PDT by Pete Dovgan
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To: GonzoII

fundamentally a trite article, simply summarizing what’s been publicly published already at a number of outlets, mostly the daily mail ... par for the course for The Atlantic ...


6 posted on 04/19/2022 3:28:57 AM PDT by catnipman (In a post-covid world, ALL "science" is now political science: stolen elections have consequences)
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To: GonzoII

The war will never end, in the sense that the Ukraineans will never be allowed to come to terms by the West. Too much arms money is involved.

Once Russia has taken Odessa and Donbass, joined up with Moldova/Transnistria and turned Ukraine into a landlocked country, then borders will stabilise.

These will be hot borders, like the ones that the DPR and LPR have lived with for eight years, but with a deeper no-mans land. Also the rump state of Ukraine will remain a no-fly zone for the West - and a permanent economic burden that the EU have talked themselves into supporting.


7 posted on 04/19/2022 3:37:33 AM PDT by agere_contra
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To: Pete Dovgan

History has shown that Russians are willing to take huge numbers of casualties. And, apparently that hasn’t changed. The Russian army is still poorly trained but they’re also still willing to take huge casualties. There’s an old army axiom; “God Favors The Big Battalions”. Guess we shall see if that’s still true….


8 posted on 04/19/2022 3:58:10 AM PDT by snoringbear (,W,E.oGovernment is the Pimp, )
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To: snoringbear

And, as Stalin said, “quantity has a quality all its own”.


9 posted on 04/19/2022 4:02:53 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Love's redeeming work is done)
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To: GonzoII
Somebody's smokin too much reefer...
10 posted on 04/19/2022 4:09:14 AM PDT by ganeemead
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To: ganeemead

The Atlantic is democrat hopium. Thats their business model.


11 posted on 04/19/2022 4:17:14 AM PDT by x_plus_one (The rod and the ring will strike.)
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To: GonzoII

Nice article... newscast to the professor - Putin only wants the land bridge to Crimea in the east.


12 posted on 04/19/2022 4:45:36 AM PDT by Chauncey Gardiner
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To: Jim Noble

“And, as Stalin said, ‘quantity has a quality all its own’ “

True, both on the battlefield and in the brothel. lol


13 posted on 04/19/2022 4:50:26 AM PDT by chuckee
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To: Chauncey Gardiner
newscast to the professor - Putin only wants the land bridge to Crimea

Putin only wants the land bridge to Crimea - now

14 posted on 04/19/2022 5:15:24 AM PDT by tlozo (Trump-the Russian invasion of Ukraine is " truly a crime against humanity")
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To: Pete Dovgan

Hooefully, the Rooskies will leave Ukraine alone and we need another leader in Russia besides Putin.

Putin is a very wealthy leader and probably one of the richest guys in the world.

There are limits to this also.

15 posted on 04/19/2022 5:30:56 AM PDT by TheConservativeTejano (The Business of America is Business)
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To: Jim Noble

Quantity here is relative. Does Russia have enough to eventually get at least the eastern part of Ukraine? Yes. Do they have enough to pursue all their security concerns? No. And the longer they stay in that meat grinder, the less they will have.


16 posted on 04/19/2022 5:43:34 AM PDT by Poison Pill
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To: GonzoII

having to stoop very low to find such propaganda i see.
No Daily Mail trash today?
You soil yourself yet again


17 posted on 04/19/2022 5:43:54 AM PDT by CarolinaReaganFan
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To: GonzoII

.


18 posted on 04/19/2022 5:50:31 AM PDT by sauropod (o may we start? It's timel to start. High time to start.)
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To: GonzoII
"The Russian military is not some smaller, less-efficient version of the U.S. military. It is a significantly less advanced and less capable force that struggles to undertake many of the operations that the U.S. handles with relative ease."

The US military has been spending billions to have a force that can strike anywhere, anytime, maintain air and ground superiority, allow individual initiative, and exploit enemy weakness at a much lower command level.

The huge problem the Russkies have is no real non-coms. Non-coms, are the real heart of the US military. Making sure things are done, and done right. EVERYTHING works as it's supposed to or there is hell to pay. That means EVERY job is important, from the guy pumping out the sewage to the fighter pilot dropping a guided munition.

19 posted on 04/19/2022 6:07:38 AM PDT by Wizdum (Tyranny always ends badly for the tyrannical. Ask Ceaușescu, Gaddafi or Saddam.)
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To: GonzoII

Todays magic mirror snapshot. What will we be told tomorrow?


20 posted on 04/19/2022 6:11:10 AM PDT by Agatsu77
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