[Jumper]

That offense in this war spares the infantry with carefully prepped artillery fire.

[buwaya]

The traditional way of prepping for an infantry advance is that used in the “100 days” offensive of late 1918, which broke the German front.

This was the “rolling barrage” technique, which has been consistently used for the last 100 years. It is meant to suppress enemy defenders while the infantry advances.

This is apparently not being used by the Russians. Instead they are using the Somme, 1916 approach of blasting the defenders until, they hope, they are killed or driven away. This is vastly wasteful and didn’t really kill off the defenders. Worse, it only allowed for very short advances.

[BroJoeK]

Jumper: "That offense in this war spares the infantry with carefully prepped artillery fire."

My understanding of how Russians fight is this:

1. Step One: send out infantry conscripts or ex-prisoners armed & equipped with whatever is expendable.
   Their purpose is to draw fire from Ukrainian defenders.

2. Step Two: Ukrainian defenders, especially if they are also inexperienced conscripts, shoot at the advancing Russian infantry, killing some or all.

3. Step Three: Russian forward observers note the source of fire on their infantry and call in artillery strikes on the Ukrainian defenders.

4. Step Four: Ukrainian defenders are killed or forced to withdraw by Russian artillery.
   They reform at new pre-prepared defensive lines.

5. Step One: -- repeat and repeat.

Bottom line: Russian infantry's job is to draw enemy fire so positions can be destroyed by Russian artillery.