Russian elephant and flexible Ukraine: war tactics a year after the invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin

Russia is like an elephant tactics It has a use in war: it crushes the ground it steps on before slowly moving forward. In front of him is a more flexible and easy-to-step Ukraine. For twelve months, neither side has won a victory on the ground, which they intend to change in future offensives.

“Russia It has not yet put everything it can deliver into the area of ​​operations, especially in terms of air potential. Russian aviation has so far interfered little and can interfere much more. It also did not deploy its best armored units,” José Enrique de Ayala, a retired general and analyst at Fundación Alternativas, told EFE.

Russian offensive now and Ukrainian in the summer

In his opinion, in order to launch a major offensive, Moscow must do so before the spring thaw begins, producing a “thaw” or a sea of ​​mud.

“He can go on the offensive and actually I think he will try. And he may have some progress, but I don’t think this offensive will be decisive,” he said.

Ukrainian offensive on the other hand, we still have to wait, he believes.

“Ukraine He’s going to try the offensive later in the summer. Because now she is not ready. He has not yet received Western tanks and is waiting to see if he can accept any types of aircraft,” he explains.

In the past year, both sides have used different military tactics in an attempt to gain an advantage on the ground.

” Russian tactics This is always infantry and artillery, that is, the tactics are more like a steamroller, more crushing than rapid advance deep into enemy territory. Russian tactics are more like elephant tactics than snake tactics,” the expert says.

no blitzkrieg

If the strategy of the Russian president, Vladimir Putinif it had been a viper, perhaps it would have been able to quickly capture the capital and decapitate its government.

But Ukrainian resistance surprised him from the first day, and he had to see how enemy troops prevented the landing of an airfield on the outskirts of Kyiv and stopped a large column of armored vehicles and tanks advancing on the capital.

“At the beginning of the war Russia He intended to apply enough pressure on several fronts that the Ukrainian government would be unable to resist him and resign, otherwise there would be a regime change in Kiev,” but “by no means was there a blitzkrieg tactic,” says the retired general.

The Second World Army surprised with its tactics, “a little old-fashioned, very World War II”.

The one in Ukraine was “much more flexible, light and modern, much more like a guerrilla war, with small units that pursued Russian units without looking for direct confrontation, and this gave them very good results,” he emphasizes. .

Failures and successes

Despite quickly taking Kherson and most of Kharkov, and closing the long-awaited land corridor from Donbass to the annexed Crimean peninsula along the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov, Russian troops suffered their first humiliation in March-April when they pulled out of Kiev and Chernihiv. .

Little did he know then that the last major Russian conquest was to be the conquest of the twin cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the Lugansk region in July, when the entire province was declared under control.

The successful Ukrainian counter-offensive in September, which pushed the front from the Donbass to the south and into the eastern region of Kharkov, allowed Ukraine kick out in the same month Russia practically from the whole Kharkiv region and from the Liman stronghold in Donetsk.

After attacks on bridges (including in the Crimea), pontoons and other supply points for Russian troops in the south, the Russian army withdrew in November from the regional center of Kherson and from the northern third of the province of the same name.

Since then, Ukraine she vacated almost 18,000 square meters of her territory.

It is with the explosion on the Crimean bridge in October that Russia begins massive shelling of Ukrainian infrastructure and strengthens its positions in order to stop the Kyiv army.

fortifications begin

“After leaving Kherson Russia it strengthens the entire line it is in now and it prevents Ukrainian tactics from continuing to work,” says De Ayala.

This forces Kyiv to use a different course of action: “attack decisively, which is what tanks and planes are for,” he emphasizes.

Now Russia is focused on maintaining the land corridor and conquering the entire Donbass, where it is still using elephant tactics. (EFE)