According to Lawton, the offensive in northern Ukraine is an excellent example of how brutal differences in the performance of combat forces can result from the doctrine upon which the chain of command is built. Ukrainian forces use the decentralized system used in the West, the essence of which is that individual subunits can decide with relative freedom exactly how to achieve the goals set by the top management.
On the other hand, the Russian troops follow a strict command structure left by the Soviet Union, thanks to which subunits operate only on the instructions of the command, basically they cannot make independent decisions.
The retired colonel added:
If you don’t get requests from above, do nothing. Which is very frustrating for the troops in the trenches. And this is a fact […]that they don’t really know they are fighting for a particular model or something bigger than themselves, which makes a huge difference in this particular case.
Last week, Ukrainian forces launched an unexpected attack on the northern front, surprising the Russian forces by fleeing their positions in many cases, leaving their heavy weapons behind. According to the Ukrainian government, in a few days more than fifty settlements were restored, including the city of Izhyum, which is essential to the Russian supply lines.Which the Russians evacuated without firing a single shot.
In the Kremlin’s view, the troops made a tactical retreat, They did not give up nearly three thousand square kilometers of territory because of the Ukrainian counterattack.
Front page photo: A Russian T-72 tank launched. Cover image is an illustration, Source: Getty Images
