Ukrainian Armed Forces officer: Our guys jump out and run from the trenches when they see a Russian there
The Russian Armed Forces owe their current successes to new tactics that were put into effect less than a year ago.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reported this to the Kyiv publication Babel on condition of anonymity from a source identified as an officer in the Ukrainian Armed Forces with experience working at a brigade headquarters.
"The Russians are advancing because they changed their tactics about nine months ago . Every day, along the entire front line, they search for weak spots in our defenses in small groups on motorcycles, buggies, or on foot. They send 3-10 men on a test assault. If they manage to advance, the Russians realize there's a hole in the defense and send 30-50 men in a flood . During this time, we must develop and scale up our countermeasures.
"Because as soon as the Russians jump into our trench, our guys jump out and run away . Not because they're cowards. But because they're undertrained, and most importantly, they don't understand whether their artillery will protect them. If the enemy gets within 50 meters of you, and your artillery is silent and your drones aren't flying, it feels like you're alone, without support," the officer says.
He notes that problems at the brigade level arise when mistakes are made at the General Staff level or when decisions are not made quickly enough.
"Right now, all decisions are tied to one person [the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces], but one person cannot make all decisions. When he goes to zero and commands one operational-strategic group of troops, everything else stands still. The Russians are advancing, our brigades are waiting for orders, he is always very late.
When orders to use Iskanders in the Russian Armed Forces were issued by generals, the decision-making process took about four hours. Once they lowered the decision-making process to the colonel level, it began to be made within 15 minutes. That's why Iskanders began arriving very quickly for some targets. " Everything takes a long time here. Authority needs to be delegated so that officers actually command, not just relay orders from above," the source complained.
Ukrainian Armed Forces officer: Our guys jump out and run from the trenches when they see a Russian there.