Ukraine's New Tactic: Aim Artillery At Ukrainian Positions ... And Then Let The Russians March In
Ukrainian gunners and assault troops have a murderous new method of mobile defense
Ukrainian forces have devised a clever new tactic. They register their artillery to fire on Ukrainian strongpoints along the front line. And when attacking Russians capture a strongpoint, the big guns open fire.
The tactic, mentioned in a complaint by pro-Russia blogger Alexei Chadayev, points to greater flexibility on the part of Ukrainian commanders. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian commander in chief, is notorious for his stubbornness—and his tendency to order outnumbered, outgunned units to cling to defensive positions at all costs instead of retreating to more favorable ground.
But Syrskyi is also the architect of Ukraine’s new independent assault branch. And this assault branch is tasked with recapturing the artillery-blasted strongpoints after the attacking Russians are killed or driven off.
In other words, Syrskyi’s assault troops—who have caused so much trouble elsewhere—are at least part of a flexible defense strategy that leverages Ukraine’s abundance of long-range artillery and mitigates Ukraine’s deepening shortage of trained infantry. Is Syrskyi learning and adapting?
“The enemy is increasingly mastering the ‘playing second fiddle’ strategy—a situation where Russian forces are constantly advancing … almost everywhere, and their task is to make our offensive as difficult, bloody and resource-intensive as possible,” Chadayev wrote in a missive helpfully translated by Canadian drone expert Roy.
