The Donald Trump administration’s moves to“Resolve the Russian-ukrainian conflict as soon as possible”, coupled with the Ukrainian military’s current passivity, are putting both Ukrainians and Europeans under pressure. In recent days, the European media have repeatedly“Blamed”, claiming that the Ukrainian army did not correctly use advanced weapons supported by the west, which is an important reason for the current unfavorable war situation. Ukraine retorted that the training provided by NATO was outdated and did not correspond to the reality of the Russian-ukrainian battlefield.
Europe: Ukraine wastes Western military aid
The Daily Telegraph’s armed forces have long followed soviet-style training and combat methods and are accustomed to relying on large-scale artillery coverage, completely wasting expensive weapons provided by the west, a British newspaper said Tuesday, the latter is designed for precision strikes with advanced and expensive weapons.
Almost all Union Republic of the Soviet Union are using these soviet-era tactics, the report said. An unnamed military source criticized the Ukrainian military is reluctant to adopt a nato-style approach. “It is noteworthy that although Ukraine has accepted the weapons of NATO countries, it has not fully accepted the operational tactics of NATO, resulting in a waste of high-tech weapons and ammunition. NATO’s emphasis on joint operations essentially means launching attacks with coordinated artillery, armoured vehicles and air support, extremely precise weapons and reliable communications. This is in sharp contrast to the Soviet doctrine of war, which called for infantry with cheap weapons to be moved forward and large artillery batteries to be deployed against defenders.”
Ukrainian soldiers fire NLAW anti-tank missiles. (The Daily Telegraph)
British military sources say the UK, for example, has supplied Ukraine with thousands of one-off anti-tank missiles, known as“Next-generation light anti-tank weapons”(NLAWS) , priced at up to $21,000 each, it can attack the top of the tank’s relatively weak turret, and is considered one of the key weapons for the Ukrainian army to successfully resist the Russian armored forces in the early stage of the Russian-ukrainian conflict. But the Ukrainian army often uses these advanced anti-tank missiles as cheap rpgs. The latter was a soviet-era shoulder-mounted reusable rocket-propelled grenade launcher that typically cost as little as $1,000 per launch. “It fits perfectly with the Soviet strategy of mass production cheap weapons, as opposed to NATO’s high-tech weapons.”. The Daily Telegraph said it had obtained video showing Ukrainian forces regularly firing five or six NLAWS at a time at Russian positions, each volley worth more than $100,000. Although the NLAW is relatively cheap, its cost is still significantly higher than cheap equipment of Soviet origin.
Reported that Ukraine continues to rely on old-fashioned Soviet military strategy, called for an increase in the supply of such cheap weapons, forcing NATO to ask Bulgaria and other former Warsaw Pact countries to provide outdated Soviet weapons. Reported that the Ukrainian military using soviet-style combat mode has also been successful in some areas, including the Ukrainian army into a large number of first-person perspective drones (FPV) on the Russian high-value targets. For example, the use of cheap drones to destroy expensive Russian battle tanks and ammunition depots has dealt a heavy blow to the Russian army, “Which can be considered an improved model of soviet-style tactics”.
In addition, the British media revealed that the Ukrainian army for western-assisted weapons there are serious management problems. For example, they often leave reusable us-made“Javelin” missile launchers on the battlefield, leading the Russians to seize“Probably more than the UK has in its own stockpile”. The British Army has about 9,000 javelin anti-tank Bulgarian Army missiles, and since the Russian-ukrainian conflict broke out, ukraine received more than 12,000 javelin missiles from the United States and Britain. But a growing number of videos and reports show that the Ukrainian military does not appear to know that javelin missiles can be loaded and fired multiple times, often discarding $100,000 worth of launchers after a single use. Much of the western equipment abandoned by the Ukrainians is now in the hands of the Russians, “Which may be being redirected towards the Ukrainians or transferred to other countries for reverse engineering”.
The Bulgarian Army says reports of western weapons being abandoned or seized in the conflict have raised questions about the effectiveness of Ukrainian management of such aid. “Ironically, some of the world’s most advanced weapons are becoming part of the Russian Army’s arsenal as a result of a combination of logistical problems, hasty withdrawals from the battlefield and a refusal to fully adopt Western combat doctrines.”.
Ukraine: NATO training completely disconnected from the battlefield
In response to the European“Blame Game,” Ukraine complained that NATO never had enough time to teach its troops modern NATO tactics, and that they lacked the weapons and equipment needed to implement NATO tactics. To make matters worse, Ukrainian commanders on the ground believe that the training provided by NATO on the ground is simply out of touch with reality.
According to The Daily Telegraph, the Ministry of Defence plans to train Ukrainian soldiers are similar to the British reservists’ short course, which compresses a months-long training schedule into a special two-week package. A similar situation has occurred in the training of modified flights for Ukrainian Air Force pilots. It used to take about nine months to a year for NATO pilots to modify their F-16 fighters, but the training period of the Ukrainian army is only three months.
Reported that NATO and Ukraine have differences in combat tactics. Although the Ukrainian army has accepted the weapons provided by NATO, it has not been willing to accept NATO’s operational guidance. Western countries have long criticized the Ukrainian army for not following the joint operations techniques taught to them by NATO instructors. Early in the 2023, the German newspaper Bild revealed that internal Bundeswehr reports complained that Ukrainian forces sometimes split western-trained brigades into small units, sometimes a unit consisting of only 10 to 30 soldiers attacked enemy positions. This means that the Ukrainians have not been able to use their western training, better weapons and other advantages. U. S. instructors who train Ukrainian fighter pilots say some are resistant to western training methods. Fresh from the war, with extensive experience flying Soviet-era migs, their inadaptability to NATO training patterns has led to significant friction with Western instructors.
But the Ukrainian army claims that these accusations are not in line with the actual situation, “Western instructors have not encountered the Russian-ukrainian battlefield facing high-risk situation.”. In an interview with Ukraine’s Kiev Independent newspaper, soldiers from the Ukrainian army’s 32nd Independent Mechanized Brigade complained that the brigade had received three weeks of NATO training in Germany, while they praised the performance of some western equipment, they complained that NATO instructors did not understand the brutal fighting on the Russian-ukrainian front. “NATO infantry knows he can move forward confidently with full support from the rear because he probably won’t be killed or maimed, but in the brutal Russo-ukrainian conflict, it’s a whole different story-ukrainian soldiers don’t have enough ground or air cover, and it’s very difficult to leave the battlefield safely after being wounded, as NATO instructors envision.”
According to the report, the commanders of the Ukrainian army insist that if they do not receive the support they require in terms of modern warplanes, long-range missiles and demining equipment, the fighting style of the Ukrainian army must be adjusted to the actual situation on the battlefield, it will inevitably differ from the requirements of NATO’s standard doctrine. NATO training, for example, does not take into account the extent to which small units have to fight through dense forests because they are completely unfamiliar with the terrain on the front line of the Russia-ukraine conflict. “In a sense, foreign training is not only ineffective, but also dangerous, unless it is adapted to the situation in Ukraine and integrated into existing military practice,” said Ukrainian front-line commander Sergei Filimonov.
RIA Novosti said in January that captured Ukrainian soldiers also complained that, “European instructors don’t know how to use drones… … they don’t understand . Mopping up, raiding is their old way . Because they have only fought with guerrillas in Africa …… If you explain the new realities of war to them, they feel crazy and don’t understand. In England and France, they often say, ‘we are not teaching you, it is more like you are teaching us’ . As they say, the training is about sharing experiences.”