The Western mainstream media continues the trend of turning on Ukraine, now that it’s clear that it cannot win the war against Russia. Recall that during the opening couple years of war, the MSM treated any criticisms of Zelensky or the Ukrainian Army as totally off-limits.
But now, a fresh Wall Street Journal report published Tuesday calls out Ukraine’s military for having increasingly adopted a rigid, Soviet-style command structure that stifles battlefield initiative.
Soldiers interviewed by the outlet described large-scale meatgrinder type tactics of blindly being sent on suicidal frontal assaults while being denied permission to withdraw from dangerous positions.
The consistent commentary on the war has long been that while Russia might have the manpower to do these old ‘war of attrition’ tactics, Ukraine certainly does not.
Ukrainian forces in the initial stages of the war were praised for their effective use of maneuver warfare and were more nimble and able to more quickly seize the initiative, or strategically retreat as necessary.
“Ukrainian officers and infantrymen complain of a centralized command culture that often punishes initiative and wastes men’s lives. Generals order repetitive frontal assaults that have little hope of success, and deny requests from beleaguered units to carry out tactical retreats and save their men. Casualties accumulate on operations with little strategic value,” the WSJ report says.
Front line commanders have increasingly gone public to voice their frustrations after witnessing needless tragic losses:
Privately, many Ukrainian soldiers repeat a bitter refrain: “Big Soviet army beats little Soviet army.”
Capt. Oleksandr Shyrshyn, a battalion commander in Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Brigade, took his frustrations public. In May he denounced the army’s top brass on Facebook. Railing against “stupid” orders and losses, he spoke of pervasive fear in the army of generals who are “only capable of reprimands, investigations, imposing penalties.” Addressing the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, he said: “I hope your children will also be in the infantry and will carry out your tasks.”
He told the Journal he was driven to speak out after his battalion was repeatedly ordered by senior commanders to launch assaults that were unrealistic for the unit’s limited means.
We also should note something the WSJ and other establishment media won’t admit: the Western allies’ constant arms and monetary support – as well as the naive urging on of Ukraine forces to ‘win’ – has likely only encouraged such ‘repetative’ and ‘unrealistic’ frontal assaults.
After all, if the US and NATO see Ukraine’s military folding or holding back, they will be less inclined to offer big support, and the funds must keep flowing at all costs from Kiev’s perspective.
WSJ Chief Foreign Correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov observes that in the “Early stages, Ukrainian forces were praised for their effective use of maneuver warfare,” but now “troops say that over time, the military shifted to a hierarchical, top-down approach reminiscent of Soviet-era tactics—resulting in heavier losses, declining morale, and a drop in recruitment.”
He also describes the surprise firing of a popular commander to have been key: “Ukraine was successful the first year of the war because its army fought differently. Once Zelensky replaced Zaluzhny with Syrsky last year, it has turned into a war of a small Soviet army against a big Soviet army, with predictable consequences.” Zaluzhny was shipped off to be ambassador to the United Kingdom, and some say he might be groomed by the West to eventually replace Zelensky.
According to one key quote in the WSJ report:
“Syrsky remains widely unpopular with Ukrainian soldiers, many of whom see him as the epitome of the Soviet syndrome: a Moscow-trained career officer who micromanages units on the ground, delaying retreats or ordering assaults that lead to morale-sapping casualties for tree lines or other objectives with little strategic value.”
This also reflects the general war weariness among Ukrainians in general as well. A recent Gallup Poll shows support for the war to be slipping among the civilian population, with 69% now favoring a negotiated settlement to end the grinding war as soon as possible.
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