Defender in entrenched positions or with cover, buildings, medevac... attacker has to cross minefields, exposed positions, under artillery/mortar fire & drone attacks, easily spotted & tracked, poorly equipped & trained & led & motivated infantry dismounting to attack machine gun positions & determined defenders, little to no medevac.
Seems very believable. Could be much more in Ukraine's favor with more ammunition, freedom of fire, etc.
The Training the big one. Poorly trained Infantry conducting attacks in forested areas or urban areas is just asking to get slaughtered. I did some OCing for urban operations at Fort Riley KS a while back and you can rip up even trained units quickly in those conditions for little loss. These guys are not even that.
I don't know if it's true but it's certainly possible. The Russian attacks on Vuhledar, Bakhmut and Avdiivka were very costly to them. Ukrainian casualties in Bakhmut didn't start to mount until the path into the city was narrowed. The heaviest Ukrainian casualties in Avdiivka was during the retreat and even then the Russians suffered horrendus losses in their final assaults.
Leadership, that is the big one. One of the weaknesses I really noticed was the UA NCO system and also some of the junior leader level training back in 2017. I can't speak for it now, hopefully they have continued to work on it because the desire to improve that area was certainly there. Removing guys who don't measure up is critical to military success. Maybe they can do great work somewhere else (staff, logistics, there is a huge list and lots of guys who can't lead in combat can lead in those jobs), but you have to have the guys who can make it happen in the battlefield in charge, ruffled feathers or not, political connections or not. History is full of guys who were not up to the task being left in command until too late. And units that missed the old saying "The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war". Training to dig a trench sucks, training reaction drills sucks, but it saves lives. Good leaders do it and tell the men to shut up and dig.
"Zelensky claims that there are 8 Russian casualties in the Kharkiv area to every Ukrainian casualty" how realistic could that be?
Defender in entrenched positions or with cover, buildings, medevac... attacker has to cross minefields, exposed positions, under artillery/mortar fire & drone attacks, easily spotted & tracked, poorly equipped & trained & led & motivated infantry dismounting to attack machine gun positions & determined defenders, little to no medevac.
Seems very believable. Could be much more in Ukraine's favor with more ammunition, freedom of fire, etc.
The Training the big one. Poorly trained Infantry conducting attacks in forested areas or urban areas is just asking to get slaughtered. I did some OCing for urban operations at Fort Riley KS a while back and you can rip up even trained units quickly in those conditions for little loss. These guys are not even that.
I don't know if it's true but it's certainly possible. The Russian attacks on Vuhledar, Bakhmut and Avdiivka were very costly to them. Ukrainian casualties in Bakhmut didn't start to mount until the path into the city was narrowed. The heaviest Ukrainian casualties in Avdiivka was during the retreat and even then the Russians suffered horrendus losses in their final assaults.
Leadership, that is the big one. One of the weaknesses I really noticed was the UA NCO system and also some of the junior leader level training back in 2017. I can't speak for it now, hopefully they have continued to work on it because the desire to improve that area was certainly there. Removing guys who don't measure up is critical to military success. Maybe they can do great work somewhere else (staff, logistics, there is a huge list and lots of guys who can't lead in combat can lead in those jobs), but you have to have the guys who can make it happen in the battlefield in charge, ruffled feathers or not, political connections or not. History is full of guys who were not up to the task being left in command until too late. And units that missed the old saying "The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war". Training to dig a trench sucks, training reaction drills sucks, but it saves lives. Good leaders do it and tell the men to shut up and dig.
Leaders have to understand what to do, teach others what to do and hold their troops to the standard.
Good leaders make their troops understand why they have to dig and exercise so they do it less complainig and maybe even faster.
Very good leaders take a shovel and make the first cut of the spade.
Thanks Don on to #3
Dob & Tom : how about VENTILATING ORKS or providing ORKS with better VENTILATION?????