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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| How Russia's tactics are evolving in Ukraine |
| 2022-03-16 |
| [Aljazeera] The last week has seen a marked change in tactics from the Russian military as the scope of the war in Ukraine has widened. Advanced weapons, especially man-portable anti-tank and air defence systems, as well as small arms and ammunition, have been pouring into Ukraine. These have made a significant impact on the battlefield as Russian tanks, armoured vehicles, supply trucks and helicopters have repeatedly been targeted and destroyed. These attacks have helped slow Russia’s advance as it continues its drive into the country from three directions — from the north towards the capital Kyiv; from the east with a focus on besieging Kharkiv and Mariupol; and from the south, where Russian units, having taken Kherson, have crossed the Dnieper River in two places and are now advancing along both sides of it, as well as pressuring the city of Mykolaiv and the Ukrainian defences near the city of Zaporizhzhia. Russian units have consolidated their grip on Mariupol, taking surrounding towns and widening the corridor that links Crimea to Donetsk. Only a small strip of coastline, centred around the port city of Odesa, is now under Ukrainian control. FOREIGN FIGHTERS AND RUSSIAN FLOUNDERING It is not just weapons that are flooding into Ukraine. Volunteers are streaming into the country by any means they can in order to fight. More than 60,000 Ukrainians from its diaspora have returned to the country and are now engaged in fighting Russia, according to Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov. Foreign fighters are all also making their way, driven by a variety of ideologies and reasons, with Ukraine saying that 20,000 people have applied to join the international legion created in response to the Russian invasion. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #5 ^ but its OK, they're not Americans doing it. (do I need to put a /sarc on that?) |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2022-03-16 18:08 |
| #4 Russia has a total war doctrine. Mobilize the men in a city to fight the Russian military and the Russians will level that city women and children included. This is how they fought in Afghanistan, how they fought in Georgia. Remember they fuel air bombed housing centers in Georgia. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2022-03-16 17:41 |
| #2 It's one thing to lose a fight halfway around the world. Something else entirely to be beaten on your own border. We're doing that here, but without the huge mobilization. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2022-03-16 09:21 |
| #1 They seem to devolve back to circa 1945. Trying to carry out the largest combat operation since the suppression of the Prague Spring of '68, the Russians failed in their attempt to copy nuances of contemporary Western military tactics.* Instead they have fallen back on using the shear weight of the old Red Army (without the wartime production to fill the losses and resources expended). * don't worry Russophiles, the Americans are deconstructing any advantage they had attained. Remember when an enemy is destroying itself, don't interfere. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2022-03-16 09:16 |