It's unfortunately worth noting that a number of normally positive accounts aren't too happy today. The fog of war and the difficult realities of an offensive directed into well-prepared defenses are obviously major considerations as well.
While minefields and insufficient supplies from the West undoubtedly contribute to drawbacks, it is essential to recognize that failures in planning and coordination at the commanding stage above the brigade level lead to far more significant drawbacks. In any war or military operation, there are both competent and ineffective commanders.
However, the main question is whether we will draw conclusions based on the performance of certain generals or simply lay blame on the West and minefields. Whether the assault concludes in Crimea or elsewhere in the South, it's vital to acknowledge both victories and failures and hold individuals accountable for seriuos shortcomings.
No amount of NATO training for NCOs and privates can compensate for the absence of similar training and the right mindset among certain senior officers.
To conclude, I would like to share a brief radio interception between Russian servicemembers that I heard almost a month ago:
- How is it going for you guys? Are you holding?
- Yeah.
- What about Ukrainians? What do you think?
- I have a feeling that their assault was planned by Gerasimov and executed by Muradov.
this is directed at no one... and at the same time all the arm chair generals..
some of the recent attacks by the ukr forces (company sized) have not looked great..
and many have sat back and stated things about the command and judgements...
the simple facts are......
1. this is war and losses will be taken..
2. ukr is on the offensive and the losses will go up now..
3. we are not on the ground, we dont know the intel, we dont know the prep, and we dont know the overall real ground truth.
4. as bad as some assults look we are finding out that most of them do gain ground and ukr is moving forward...
5. this is a HARD fight without traditional air support, with a peer that MOST people thought would crush them in 3 days.
6. war is hard, its dirty, it never goes as expected, and there are always losses, even in the best operations.
7. some people are fixating on losses and not looking at the big picture.. few of the forces have been used so far, and more are coming.
8. im not going to pile on a company commander right now that may have had a bad mission. many times that commander is the first to die. constructive feedback is good and needed, and if a higher commander is needed to be replaced it will happen. have faith in the guys on the ground im confident that in the end ukr will have a breakthrough... till then the fight will be hard, and there will be losses.. but ukr will win the war.