JRL NEWSWATCH: “How Ukrainian Strategy Is Running Circles Around Russia’s Lumbering Military” – WSJ
“Classic military operations and nimble battlefield decision-making are exploiting the incompetence and top-down command of Russian forces.”
“… Ukraine’s command structure encourages junior officers to make in-the-moment battlefield decisions … to seize opportunities and quickly take advantage of enemy weaknesses. Russians, by contrast, have been slowed by a Soviet-era decision-making structure, in which orders trickle down the chain of command from Moscow, and troops at the front lines take little initiative. In weeks, Ukraine has cleared Russian forces from thousands of square miles in [northeast Ukraine’s] Kharkiv region …. Its forces are now advancing south toward … occupied … [regional capital] Kherson …. Rather than directly engaging with … grinding artillery exchanges and tank battles … Ukraine has sought instead to surround Russian forces and cut off supply lines. It has effectively integrated Soviet-era equipment with long-range precision Western artillery and rocket systems to starve its enemy of fuel, ammunition and other supplies. …”