Washington: UkraineU.S. troops blew up bridges to prevent Russian ground troops from advancing. Its pilots and air defenses have prevented Russian fighter jets from conquering the skies. And a band of knowledgeable Ukrainian cyber warriors have so far been defeating Moscow in an information war, inspiring support at home and abroad.
To the surprise of many military analysts, Ukrainian troops are mounting a harder-than-expected resistance to Russian forces across a country the size of Texas above and below, fighting with a resource and creativity that American analysts have been calling. Said Russian troops could travel for weeks or months to come.
Ukrainians are also taking advantage of a messy start RussiaIt’s an all-out attack. Armed with shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons, they attacked a mile-long Russian armored convoy on the capital Kyiv, helped to halt the advance stricken by a shortage of fuel and food, and pulled off a march that lasted a few days. The time was expected to take possibly weeks.
To be sure, Russia’s invasion is only a week old. The strategic southern city of Kherson fell on Wednesday; Kremlin forces intensify bombing of Kyiv and other cities; And, despite an influx of fresh weapons from the West, Ukrainian leaders say they desperately need more weapons to destroy Russian tanks and Russian warplanes.
And while the Ukrainian government publicized its victories and Russian attacks that killed civilians, it said little about the battlefield losses of its mechanized units. For their part, Russian officials are unwilling to present the operation as a war, and therefore have not disclosed the engagements won by their forces.
The result, in these early days of the invasion, is that the Ukrainians are counterattacking the Russians in an information campaign.
On the battlefield, the Ukrainian military is conducting a highly effective and mobile defense, using its knowledge of its home turf to deter Russian forces on multiple fronts, General Mark A Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday.
Milley said some of the tactics employed by Ukrainian troops include using mobile weapons systems to take the Russians wherever they go. Ukraine’s forces, he told reporters traveling with him in Europe, “are fighting with extraordinary skill and courage against Russian forces.”
US officials have been impressed by the combat skills of the Ukrainians, but their assessment that Russia has a superior military has not changed.
Ukraine has succeeded in slowing Russian progress, but has not been able to stop it, nor is the resistance strong enough to move the Russian president. Vladimir PutinThe goal of war. In the long term, US officials said, it will be difficult for Ukraine to continue to frustrate the Russian advance.
In the meantime, however, the Ukrainians are turning into a nation in arms. “In war, it’s always different than you think, and the side that learns fast and adapts fast will win,” said Frederick B. Hodges, a former top US Army commander in Europe. For European policy analysis. “So far, Ukraine is learning and rapidly adapting.”
Ukraine has the largest army in Europe, with 170,000 active-duty soldiers, 100,000 reservists and regional defense forces including at least 100,000 ex-servicemen. Thousands of citizens are also getting admitted now.
Ukrainian forces have been training for further Russian incursions since Ukraine’s occupation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and began supporting separatists in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine. Many veterans of Ukraine fought in those battles, so there is a subset of the population that is trained and knows how to fight the Russians.
The US Special Operations Forces also trains Ukrainian military forces. Leaders in Kyiv then assigned those soldiers to conventional units, allowing them to train a large part of the army. US analysts say training on the battlefield has made a difference.
The United States has supplied more than $3 billion in weapons, equipment and other supplies to Ukraine’s armed forces since 2014. In those eight years, US military advisers, including Army Green Berets and National Guard soldiers, have trained more than 27,000 Ukrainian soldiers. Yvoryev Combat Training Center near Lviv in western Ukraine.
In Brussels on Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Ukrainian military was “performing and resisting more than most experts expected, and certainly more than Russia expected.”
“They are there to defend their land,” Stoltenberg told reporters traveling with Milley.
In fact, Michael CarpenterThe US representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in a remarks in Vienna on Thursday praised a Ukrainian sailor, Vitaly Skakun. The Ukrainian military said the Marines blew themselves up on a bridge in the southern Kherson region to prevent a line of Russian tanks from crossing.
Since the early hours of the invasion, Ukraine’s underdog army has sought to flip the script on the Russian army of over 150,000 largely on its borders. For example, Ukrainian troops repulsed an attack by Russian air and special forces on a major airfield north of Kyiv last Thursday in the early hours of the war, after the Russians opened a major air bridge on the outskirts of the capital. Failed the attempt.
“In defense of the city and on the outskirts of the cities, the Ukrainian military is doing quite well,” said Michael Kaufman, director of studies for Russia at the Defense Research Institute CNA. “The shameful nature of the Russian war effort undoubtedly helped.”
As the Russians approached Kyiv and Kharkiv, the Ukrainians were able to move their forces to critical locations faster than the invading forces. Not only have the Ukrainians moved more deftly, they have also made good choices about where to focus the firepower.
“The art of mechanized maneuver warfare is being able to concentrate enormous combat power on pivotal sections of the front, the locations of your choice,” said Frederick W. Kagan, a military strategist who has advised US commands in both Iraq and Afghanistan. “The Russians, surprisingly, failed to do so. But the Ukrainians have taken advantage of their ability to rapidly move reinforcements and counterattack.”
Thomas Bullock, an open-source analyst at defense intelligence firm Jens, said the Russian military made tactical errors that Ukrainians have been able to capitalize on.
“The Ukrainians seem to have been the most successful in ambushing Russian troops,” Bullock said. The Russians are “stuck on the main roads so that they can move quickly and not risk getting stuck in the mud. But they are moving on the winding roads and their banks and supply routes are highly affected by the attacks of Ukraine. And right here That has given them the most success.”
In Kyiv, Ukrainian counterattacks have pushed Russian troops west and forced them to call in reinforcements as they try to surround the city, said Kagan, an expert in the Russian military who works at the American Enterprise Institute on Critical Threat. Lead the project.
Although it is often easier to defend than to attack, especially in a complex multifront offensive, Ukrainians have taken advantage of the Russian decision to use too little force, sometimes only two battalions, to take critical points.
“They should have been more evenly matched on a tactical level, as the Russians were operating well,” Kagan said. “Ukrainians have been much smarter about this than the Russians.”
Ukrainians have been far more successful in the north, defending the country’s second largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv, than in the south, where better-trained Russian forces in Crimea have had more success.
“In the south, on the Crimean front, when Ukrainians are engaged in mechanized warfare they are losing,” Bullock said.
US government officials believe Putin may double down on his attack. But some analysts say an increase in Russian casualties, growing economic disruption in Russia as a result of sanctions and the prospect of a permanent Ukrainian insurgency could push that strategy forward.
To the surprise of many military analysts, Ukrainian troops are mounting a harder-than-expected resistance to Russian forces across a country the size of Texas above and below, fighting with a resource and creativity that American analysts have been calling. Said Russian troops could travel for weeks or months to come.
Ukrainians are also taking advantage of a messy start RussiaIt’s an all-out attack. Armed with shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons, they attacked a mile-long Russian armored convoy on the capital Kyiv, helped to halt the advance stricken by a shortage of fuel and food, and pulled off a march that lasted a few days. The time was expected to take possibly weeks.
To be sure, Russia’s invasion is only a week old. The strategic southern city of Kherson fell on Wednesday; Kremlin forces intensify bombing of Kyiv and other cities; And, despite an influx of fresh weapons from the West, Ukrainian leaders say they desperately need more weapons to destroy Russian tanks and Russian warplanes.
And while the Ukrainian government publicized its victories and Russian attacks that killed civilians, it said little about the battlefield losses of its mechanized units. For their part, Russian officials are unwilling to present the operation as a war, and therefore have not disclosed the engagements won by their forces.
The result, in these early days of the invasion, is that the Ukrainians are counterattacking the Russians in an information campaign.
On the battlefield, the Ukrainian military is conducting a highly effective and mobile defense, using its knowledge of its home turf to deter Russian forces on multiple fronts, General Mark A Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday.
Milley said some of the tactics employed by Ukrainian troops include using mobile weapons systems to take the Russians wherever they go. Ukraine’s forces, he told reporters traveling with him in Europe, “are fighting with extraordinary skill and courage against Russian forces.”
US officials have been impressed by the combat skills of the Ukrainians, but their assessment that Russia has a superior military has not changed.
Ukraine has succeeded in slowing Russian progress, but has not been able to stop it, nor is the resistance strong enough to move the Russian president. Vladimir PutinThe goal of war. In the long term, US officials said, it will be difficult for Ukraine to continue to frustrate the Russian advance.
In the meantime, however, the Ukrainians are turning into a nation in arms. “In war, it’s always different than you think, and the side that learns fast and adapts fast will win,” said Frederick B. Hodges, a former top US Army commander in Europe. For European policy analysis. “So far, Ukraine is learning and rapidly adapting.”
Ukraine has the largest army in Europe, with 170,000 active-duty soldiers, 100,000 reservists and regional defense forces including at least 100,000 ex-servicemen. Thousands of citizens are also getting admitted now.
Ukrainian forces have been training for further Russian incursions since Ukraine’s occupation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and began supporting separatists in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine. Many veterans of Ukraine fought in those battles, so there is a subset of the population that is trained and knows how to fight the Russians.
The US Special Operations Forces also trains Ukrainian military forces. Leaders in Kyiv then assigned those soldiers to conventional units, allowing them to train a large part of the army. US analysts say training on the battlefield has made a difference.
The United States has supplied more than $3 billion in weapons, equipment and other supplies to Ukraine’s armed forces since 2014. In those eight years, US military advisers, including Army Green Berets and National Guard soldiers, have trained more than 27,000 Ukrainian soldiers. Yvoryev Combat Training Center near Lviv in western Ukraine.
In Brussels on Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Ukrainian military was “performing and resisting more than most experts expected, and certainly more than Russia expected.”
“They are there to defend their land,” Stoltenberg told reporters traveling with Milley.
In fact, Michael CarpenterThe US representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in a remarks in Vienna on Thursday praised a Ukrainian sailor, Vitaly Skakun. The Ukrainian military said the Marines blew themselves up on a bridge in the southern Kherson region to prevent a line of Russian tanks from crossing.
Since the early hours of the invasion, Ukraine’s underdog army has sought to flip the script on the Russian army of over 150,000 largely on its borders. For example, Ukrainian troops repulsed an attack by Russian air and special forces on a major airfield north of Kyiv last Thursday in the early hours of the war, after the Russians opened a major air bridge on the outskirts of the capital. Failed the attempt.
“In defense of the city and on the outskirts of the cities, the Ukrainian military is doing quite well,” said Michael Kaufman, director of studies for Russia at the Defense Research Institute CNA. “The shameful nature of the Russian war effort undoubtedly helped.”
As the Russians approached Kyiv and Kharkiv, the Ukrainians were able to move their forces to critical locations faster than the invading forces. Not only have the Ukrainians moved more deftly, they have also made good choices about where to focus the firepower.
“The art of mechanized maneuver warfare is being able to concentrate enormous combat power on pivotal sections of the front, the locations of your choice,” said Frederick W. Kagan, a military strategist who has advised US commands in both Iraq and Afghanistan. “The Russians, surprisingly, failed to do so. But the Ukrainians have taken advantage of their ability to rapidly move reinforcements and counterattack.”
Thomas Bullock, an open-source analyst at defense intelligence firm Jens, said the Russian military made tactical errors that Ukrainians have been able to capitalize on.
“The Ukrainians seem to have been the most successful in ambushing Russian troops,” Bullock said. The Russians are “stuck on the main roads so that they can move quickly and not risk getting stuck in the mud. But they are moving on the winding roads and their banks and supply routes are highly affected by the attacks of Ukraine. And right here That has given them the most success.”
In Kyiv, Ukrainian counterattacks have pushed Russian troops west and forced them to call in reinforcements as they try to surround the city, said Kagan, an expert in the Russian military who works at the American Enterprise Institute on Critical Threat. Lead the project.
Although it is often easier to defend than to attack, especially in a complex multifront offensive, Ukrainians have taken advantage of the Russian decision to use too little force, sometimes only two battalions, to take critical points.
“They should have been more evenly matched on a tactical level, as the Russians were operating well,” Kagan said. “Ukrainians have been much smarter about this than the Russians.”
Ukrainians have been far more successful in the north, defending the country’s second largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv, than in the south, where better-trained Russian forces in Crimea have had more success.
“In the south, on the Crimean front, when Ukrainians are engaged in mechanized warfare they are losing,” Bullock said.
US government officials believe Putin may double down on his attack. But some analysts say an increase in Russian casualties, growing economic disruption in Russia as a result of sanctions and the prospect of a permanent Ukrainian insurgency could push that strategy forward.