A Ukrainian pilot and a Mi-24 attack helicopter during military drills in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters
A Soviet-style approach to war might be holding back Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia.US officials told The New York Times that Ukrainian forces were evenly allocating their resources.Ukraine has continued to pour resources into eastern areas such as Bakhmut, baffling US officials.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia is stalling and Western officials are struggling to convince the country to break with tradition and move resources to where they’re needed most.
Unnamed US officials told The New York Times that Ukraine needed to focus its counteroffensive resources on southern Ukraine, as they have been spreading equipment and troops too widely and to little effect.
The problem is that Ukraine — like Russia — fights under an old Communist doctrine that seeks to limit infighting between military divisions by evenly dividing resources, the Times reported.
That thinking has led Ukraine to pour resources into the eastern region of Bakhmut and surrounding areas, baffling US military officials, per the report.
The strategy has left inadequate resources in the south of the country, where the plan is for Ukraine to cut off Russia’s supply lines and target the bridge that links the country with Crimea.
For now, a commitment to equality among its regiments appears to be holding back these efforts.
The US has been working to help transform Ukraine’s Soviet tactics and help its troops become a more modern, “agile” force.
In a Department of Defense briefing from April 2022, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby described how the training of Ukrainian troops in Germany prior to Russia’s invasion pulled the country away from old styles of combat.
“They have better command and control,” Kirby said.
“They have better battlefield initiative. They have a competent noncommissioned officer corps that is empowered on the field of battle to make tactical decisions. That didn’t happen by accident,” he added.