How Ukraine is remaking war

Foreign Affairs ^ | August 29, 2022 | Lauren Kahn

[Timber Rattler]

At the outset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, most experts expected that Kyiv would fall quickly. Ukrainian forces were fighting against a military that was bigger and better armed. Russia’s troops had more combat experience and funding. The question was not if Moscow’s forces would depose the Ukrainian government but when regime change would happen.

Of course, Kyiv didn’t fall. Instead, the Ukrainian military stopped Russia’s assault on the capital and forced a retreat. Russia downsized its initial mission from wholesale conquest, and the war now mostly consists of grinding offensives and counteroffensives in Ukraine’s east and south. The question is no longer how long Kyiv can hold out. It is whether the Ukrainian government can reclaim occupied land.

There are several reasons for Ukraine’s surprising success. The Russian military’s logistical incompetence, its puzzling inability to secure early air superiority, and low troop morale all played a part. So did Western support for Ukraine and the sheer tenacity of the country’s soldiers. But these explanations do not tell the full story. The Ukrainian military deserves recognition not just for its troops’ motivation but also for its technical savvy. It has used cutting-edge technologies and adapted existing capabilities in creative new ways, on and off the kinetic battlefield. It has deployed loitering munitions—missiles with the ability to stay on station until an operator locates a target—and modified commercial drones that can destroy Russian troops and equipment on the cheap. It has tapped commercial satellite data to track Russian troop movements in near real time. And Kyiv has wisely used artificial intelligence, in conjunction with this satellite imagery, to create software that helps artillery locate, aim, and destroy targets in the most efficient and lethal manner possible.

[Hamiltonian]

"Borees Dahlink, why are Moose and Squirrel unloading planes in Rzeszow?"

"Natasha, that was last week. Now Moose is looking at screen and Squirrel is carrying unknown equipment 17,000 meters over Black Sea"

"Borees Dahlink, how can glorious Red Army of Convicts and Mongols kill civilians, steal washing machines, and give us new USSR if Moose and Squirrel are helping Khokhols?

"Eez easy Natasha, we will have Kremlin troll farm invent new lies to post on FR. We will test them on ourselves to make sure they are believable."

[higgmeister]

The Red Army expected the Ukrainians to respond to a textbook Soviet tactic with Soviet tactics.

The Russian Army expected Zelensky to soil his panties, grab as much wealth as he could carry, and hightail it out of Dodge City.   President Putin didn't realize the Globalist Cabal would never let Zelensky leave the Ukraine and destroy their evil plans for the Global Great Reset.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Lee, in order to be funny, it usually involves writing something funny.

Troll fail.

Maybe, instead, you can keep spamming FR with pictures of faggot porno videos you starred in like your trollbot comrade, Barium Enema. Then again, I don’t think we want to see that. Morlocks making whoopie ain’t pretty.

[Hamiltonian]

No doubt you’ve heard this before- you have the mind of a ten year old.

[McGruff]

Soros has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine.

[DesertRhino]

True, in the old days entire cities would get flattened. WWI and II style wars are pretty much off the table. And especially when you realize the losing side of either of those would have absolutely used nukes to save themselves.
The Japanese, the Nazi Germans, etc. They would have done it.

[Robert357]

Lot’s of armies around the world are going to need to change their tactics, their weapons inventory, and their stockpile of arms.

We are witnessing a wholesale gifting of Soviet era weapons by former Warsaw Pact companies to Ukraine, so that they can buy new more modern weapons.

Modern warfare is going to be a lot more internet of everything oriented with drones, satellites, radio/telephone listening posts intercepting enemy communications, hacking of internet communications, and social media feeding targeting information. It is also going to be much more mobile and less centralized. Further, it will be less about big tanks and big bombers than about lots of smaller weapons delivery platforms.

A couple years ago, the thought of the US Marine Corps giving up its tanks seemed suspect. Now, maybe the same amount of money would be better spent on Javelin missiles, or drones. Warfare has been changed.

My personal hope is the MILSPEC is dead. The regulations that produce $10,000 toilet seats need to give way to mass produced quality products that can be widely distributed on the battle field. I love how many of the downed Russian aircraft have commercial civilian GPS equipment taped to the dashboards.

[fieldmarshaldj]

At least I have a mind, and not Soros’s hand shoved up my butt. :-)

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Well done! 👏

[kiryandil]

Steiner will hit the dirty RuZZians on the flank.     

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I saw this being a disastrous outcome from before the start. The reason being how Putin rearranged government operations.

That is, during the communist years, the Russian balance of government power (legislative, executive, and judicial in the US), was a “three legged stool” of the communist party, the KGB, and the military. When one “leg” got too long, the other two would cut it down to size.

Since the communist party is effectively out, Putin, himself a KGB man, decided to make the KGB (now FSB) supreme at the expense of the army. Not the best idea, as the FSB and the army do things in very different ways.

Of major impact was the purging of the Russian equivalent of the Pentagon. Truthfully, it did need purging, but then he set the FSB, not the army to rebuild it, something they were ill equipped to do.

That is why the most recent invasion of Ukraine has been such a foul up. Old, ill-maintained equipment. Green soldiers wearing hand-me-down uniforms. Terrible logistics. And worst of all, FSB command and control.

[CarolinaReaganFan]

If Z isn’t to busy making gay sex marriage legal maybe he could find time to negotiate a cease fire and save ukranian lives for a change.
https://twitter.com/AmySpiro/status/1498085663786344452

[walkingdead]

“And all the other sides involved (and there are several) don’t have the average American’s best interests at heart, either.“

If there is one thing we know is true in this war, it is the above. No one is looking out for the average American citizen, not ours, not theirs, and no one in between.

I will also say this. The nonsense we are seeing in Ukraine, and in the world writ large, is due to America’s current weak and inept leadership. And considering we probably have already seen our last true election years ago, may God help us all.

[Gottfried]

Remaking? There is nothing remaking about losing - decisively, as the Ukies and their string pullers - USA - are doing. It’s as old as warfare. One side wins -Russia, and one side loses - us. Ukraine? Whatz dat?

[kiryandil]

The wise man sides against the Twitter mob.

The "tell" is when the Virtue Signaling starts up.

[Hamiltonian]

Whatever that means.

Actually, the wise man understands what millions think about being re-absorbed into a new Soviet Union.

[Carriage Hill]

SPJNK.

[kiryandil]

You echo the wisdom of the Lefty blue-checks on the Twittsewer - goose-stepping into Klaus Schwab's Glorious Global Future.

You CAN steal a Ukie flag off the Twittersewer to attach to your FR posts, you know.

It's all the rage with the cool Lefty kids on Facebook and the Twitt.

[dforest]

Then why are they dying by the gross loads?
The only thing they are winning is a propaganda war.

[Hamiltonian]

Keep tryin', something has to work.

The best wisdom to echo on this subject would be that of Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians, Czechs, Latvians, Estonians and Slovaks.