How Ukrainian Strategy Is Running Circles Around Russia s Lumbering Military – WSJ

Eight months into Ukraine s war with Russia, its emerging strategy is combining classic military operations with opportunism on the battlefield to exploit the incompetence of Russian forces and is changing the course of the battle.

Ukraine s command structure encourages junior officers to make in-the-moment battlefield decisions, an authority that they have used to seize opportunities and quickly take advantage of enemy weaknesses.

Russians, by contrast, have been slowed by a Soviet-era decision-making structure, in which orders trickle down the chain of command from Moscow, and troops at the front lines take little initiative.

In weeks, Ukraine has cleared Russian forces from thousands of square miles in the Kharkiv region of the country s northeast. Its forces are now advancing south toward the occupied city of Kherson, a regional capital.

Rather than directly engaging with the grinding artillery exchanges and tank battles that Russia favors, Ukraine has sought instead to surround Russian forces and cut off supply lines. It has effectively integrated Soviet-era equipment with long-range precision Western artillery and rocket systems to starve its enemy of fuel, ammunition and other supplies.

via www.wsj.com