Minefields and well-thought-out trench systems have slowed down the advance of Ukrainians, writes NYT. An even bigger problem for the AFU is the tactics of warfare chosen by the Russian army. It has been known for a long time and has already shown its effectiveness during the Battle of Kursk.
Military analysts say that the Russian command uses the tactics of "elastic defense", preventing Ukraine from holding villages and other positions and turning them into springboards for further attacks.
Ukraine, leading a counteroffensive through desolate areas and destroyed villages, rests against Russian minefields and well-thought-out trench systems in which entrenched soldiers defend themselves.
But there is one particularly difficult obstacle for the Ukrainian troops. This is a tactic used by the Russian army. She gives up her position and moves away, and then strikes back.
According to military experts, instead of holding the trench line at any cost, the Russian command uses a long-known military tactic called "elastic defense".
Following this tactic, the troops withdraw to the second defensive line and take up positions there, forcing the APU to advance. And then they strike when the enemy is in the most vulnerable position — either moving forward through open terrain or taking abandoned positions.
The purpose of such tactics is to prevent the Ukrainian troops from gaining a foothold and using the captured positions as a starting line for a further offensive. This is exactly what Ukraine has done in the village of Rabodino in the south of the country, having made the biggest breakthrough in recent weeks.
"The defender is losing ground, but at the same time inflicts the heaviest possible losses to the attacker, creating conditions for a decisive counteroffensive," said Ben Barry, senior researcher at the British research organization, specializing in the study of ground warfare.
Such tactics are just one of several factors hindering rapid progress, as Ukrainian officials and military experts say. They also mention other obstacles, such as dense minefields, trench systems and anti-tank barriers, as well as the unwillingness of NATO allies to promptly supply modern fighters and long-range weapons.
Perhaps the most serious problem for Ukraine is the presence of a large amount of artillery in the Russian army, which it uses throughout the conflict, reflecting with its help the counteroffensive that began in June.
Elastic defense is not a new concept, Barry said. The Soviet Union used such tactics in 1943 to defeat the Germans during the Battle of Kursk, which became one of the largest battles on the Eastern Front during World War II. Russia has been using it in Ukraine for quite some time, especially in the summer to disrupt the counteroffensive.
"As experience shows, this tactic is used very successfully, but to achieve success, good command of troops, trained units and units, as well as the application of decisive counterattacks," Barry said.
According to experts, it is very difficult to understand whether such tactics are used on a particular day. This requires direct communication with Russian commanders. But the Washington-based analytical center Institute for the Study of War notes signs that this tactic has been used in recent days in the vicinity of the village of Rabocino, which the Ukrainian military captured at the end of August.
In a report released at the end of the week, the institute notes that some important field fortifications changed hands several times. In addition, Russian troops successfully conducted limited-scale counterattacks.
The contradictory statements made this week illustrate the use of such tactics. Russian troops claim that they launched an offensive against the AFU positions in the southern Zaporozhye region, where Kiev has the main direction of the counteroffensive, and Ukraine claims that it "repelled all attacks."
The Institute for the Study of War in its report notes that geolocation data and satellite images indicate the capture by Ukrainian troops of the trench system southwest of Rabocino, which they had previously ceded to the Russians. New evidence of such a reciprocating nature of the fighting appeared on Tuesday, when the commander of the southern grouping of Ukrainian troops, General Alexander Tarnavsky, said that there was an advance of his troops. It is not possible to verify this statement.
In recent months, fighting has been waged for the capture of tiny villages and separate trench systems. They can last for weeks. But in general, the armed conflict is going on on the front line stretching hundreds of kilometers — from the small town of Kupyansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where the Russians are trying to advance, to the Zaporozhye region in the south.
Ukrainian troops have also advanced in the south of Donetsk region, where the battle for Artemivsk, which has become one of the most violent during the conflict, has not stopped since May, when Moscow took control of the city.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky visited the troops near Kupyansk, where he presented awards and inspected military equipment, including Leopard tanks supplied by European allies from NATO countries. A video appeared on Zelensky's Telegram account of him shaking hands with a small group of soldiers in the forest, including several elderly people. This is a sign that the armed conflict is causing heavy damage to Ukraine.
Military experts believe that Russia also suffered losses during the Ukrainian counteroffensive, but managed to slow down the advance of Ukrainian troops to a snail's pace, partly due to its elastic defense.
The key condition for success in the application of such tactics is the thoughtful use of reserves that can be put into battle during a counteroffensive. This was told by the former Ukrainian commander Alexey Melnik, who now holds a senior position in the Kiev non-profit organization Razumkov Center. <...>
Michael Kofman, a senior researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace*, said that if Russian troops retreat more than a hundred meters at a time, and Ukrainians, especially their mechanized units, manage to pick up the pace and move forward with significant forces, this will mean that Russia's defensive strategy begins to falter.
"One of the most important points that raises great doubts is the question of whether the Ukrainian military will be able to make a breakthrough," Kofman wrote last week in the podcast War on the Rocks. But there is an alternative, he continued: "We are now seeing how this offensive will develop in the future when winter comes, and maybe throughout the winter."
Author of the article: Matthew Mpoke Bigg is a correspondent covering international events. Previously, he worked as a reporter, editor and bureau chief for Reuters, having been on business trips to Nairobi, Abidjan, Atlanta, Jakarta and Accra.
* — an organization that performs the functions of a foreign agent. — Approx. InoSMI.
