Since the beginning of the Ukrainian counter offensive we have seen platoon and company size actions in the southern region, along what has unofficially been referred to as the Zaporizhzhia Front. These actions have been aimed at breaching the forward defenses of the Russian Army who spent much of the winter and spring digging in with troop emplacements and mine wire obstacles. If you remember back in the immediate aftermath of the Kherson offensive that culminated in the capture of the territory on the right back of the Dnipr River, it was believed that the Russians were hoping to mobilize several hundred thousand troops to put on the defensive and dig in tight as a tick. These are those defensive structures.

Ukrainian operations have been costly, even as Air-Launched Cruise Missiles like the STORMSHADOW and Excalibur rounds fired from M777A2 towed artillery are targeting Russian command, supply, and area access/area denial systems with a moderate level of success. There is a call for more Western weapons, mostly cluster munitions to be sent to Ukraine to aid in this offensive but this is a difficult decision for any Western government to make considering many have signed treaties outlawing the use of such weapons.

Meanwhile, the Russians are doing their best to put on a good show to deter any potential internal elements with a mind to usurp the power of the Putin regime after Wagner made a fairly unchallenged move towards Moscow in what has been collectively been referred to as a mutiny, not a coup. I’m going to leave this subject alone for the most part, but it seems wild to me that there wasn’t a major Russian military force to block their path aside from what appeared to be maybe a company of 45th Spetsnaz and some (promised) Chechen security elements. Wagner also acted as if they had spent some considerable time planning this, not like the decision had been made hours prior to their elements stepping off to Rostov and eventually the road to Moscow.

Personally, it seems like the Ukrainian counter offensive is facing a lot more difficulty than previously expected. Unfortunately any sort of large scale breaching operation is going to be costly for the attacking force, especially against any enemy well versed in the defense. This operation is no exception. There is a lot of online chatter that NATO tactics that Ukraine is using aren’t effective and that Ukraine is switching to more Soviet based tactics as a result. Personally, I find that sort of silly considering that military forces adapt to the circumstances they find themselves in, even American military forces will throw out the play book to do what is needed to succeed on the battlefield. We are hopefully going to see the Ukrainians continue the general force flexibility that they have demonstrated throughout this fight.

This weekend I am going to do a write up on some best practices that I have gathered from Ukrainians on the ground. Some of this will be common sense but other elements are fairly new concepts.