Ukraine’s Western-trained brigades begin to engage
They fight more effectively at night than their Russian counterparts, US officials say.
They use US-made Bradley fighting vehicles to destroy Russian armor with anti-tank missiles. And they employ combined-arms tactics—synchronized attacks by infantry, armor, and artillery forces—that they’ve learned from American and other Western forces.
It is finally showtime for the 36,000 Ukrainian soldiers – nine brigades – who have been armed, equipped and trained outside Ukraine in recent months by the United States and its NATO allies.
How these Western-trained troops perform in the coming months, military experts say, will help determine the success of Ukraine’s long-awaited counter-offensive to drive Russian troops out of occupied territory. Their performance will also demonstrate whether the tens of billions of dollars in arms Ukraine has received from its allies, including $40 billion from the Biden administration, will succeed in transforming the Ukrainian military into a NATO-standard fighting force.
Biden administration officials hope the nine brigades will demonstrate that the US way of warfare — using combined arms, synchronized tactics and regiments of authorized senior enlisted soldiers — is superior to the rigid centralized chain of command that is the Russian approach.
But things are moving slowly for Ukraine, and even proponents of the American way acknowledge that the start of the counter-offensive has yet to yield rapid breakthroughs, such as the week-long recapture of Kharkiv by the Ukrainian army last fall.
“This is the most difficult part of the counter-offensive for the Ukrainian army, and it is also the stage where the Russian forces can use their remaining artillery and air support advantages,” said Dara Massicot, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. “If the Ukrainians are able to break through, the dynamics could change.”
Ukrainian troops have had some minor successes, breaking through a first Russian line of defense and reclaiming several villages. But they have lost some of their latest Western tanks and armored vehicles, and both sides have suffered a high number of casualties, according to a British intelligence report.
“This is very hard work,” said Frederick B. Hodges, a retired lieutenant general and former top U.S. Army commander in Europe. But, he added, “They’ve been training for that for months.”
The early stages of training focused on specific weapon systems supplied by the United States, such as the howitzer. Led by the 7th Army Training Command in Germany, the sessions included classroom instruction and fieldwork beginning with small squads and later larger units, culminating in more complex combat exercises involving entire battalions and headquarters.
Other countries, including Britain, Germany and Spain, have also trained Ukrainian brigades for the counter-offensive.
Most of Ukraine’s nine brigades have yet to be deployed to battle, but the vanguard of that main strike force is already making its mark.
Pentagon officials and military analysts say Ukraine gained an advantage by fighting at night. Using night vision optics, Bradley’s and German-supplied Leopard tanks can identify and attack Russian targets in the dark at greater ranges than the Russians.
The difference is even greater with Russia using older, less capable tanks after many of its newer, more advanced versions were destroyed in previous battles, analysts said.
Ukraine has reinforced the new units with battle-hardened battalions as they prepare to maneuver through Russian minefields and breach other heavily fortified defenses. As part of their weeks-long training, soldiers in the brigades briefly rotated into front-line combat units before deploying their entire units.
Ukraine does not talk about military losses, but the conditions on the battlefield are a serious challenge for the Ukrainian troops. Russian forces have built a network of minefields, tank traps and other defenses, and the flat terrain, with little cover along much of the southern front, leaves advancing troops vulnerable to Russian artillery.
In the early days of the counter-offensive, several Bradley fighting vehicles and German Leopard tanks were abandoned by Ukrainian forces or destroyed by Russian forces, according to videos and photos posted online by bloggers and verified by The New York Times. But Ukrainian tank crews generally survived the attacks and many of the damaged Bradleys and Leopards can be recovered and repaired, US and Ukrainian officials say.
“The Bradleys and Leopards are performing well,” said Rob Lee, a Russian military specialist at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia and a former U.S. Navy officer. They are more survivable than the other options Ukraine had. Ukrainian soldiers can feel more confident in future battles, knowing they have a better chance of survival.”
Ukrainian forces have broken through initial combat positions along part of the front and continue to search for Russian vulnerabilities, but they remain several miles from Russia’s main defense lines. The Russians are waiting to see if the Ukrainians make significant progress before making any major moves or adjustments, US officials and military analysts said.
Ukrainian forces have already faced minefields, trenches, anti-tank ditches, airstrikes and artillery fire. Bad weather last week, making muddy fields impassable for heavy armored vehicles, has also hampered efforts by both armies, officials said.
For the newly trained troops, speed will be paramount. “They have to keep moving because the slower they go, the more vulnerable they are,” said Seth G. Jones, a senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
For more than a year, Biden administration officials tried to keep facets of the training secret, fearing to feed the idea that it is the United States, not Ukraine, that is at war with Russia.
In January, the government allowed reporters to watch parts of the training in Grafenwöhr, Germany, but they could only follow General Mark A. Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and watch his interactions with Ukrainian and US troops and commanders . . They were not allowed to cover specific conversations between General Milley and Ukrainian forces, or take any photos or videos.
On the day he visited, officials said, General Milley urged Ukrainian troops to defend their country. When meeting with commanders, he said that “this is one of those moments in time when if you want to make a difference, this is it.”
Ukraine is counting on the brigades to breach Russian defenses, regain some of the nearly 20 percent of Russian-held land, and possibly break the land bridge connecting Russia to the strategically important Crimean peninsula.
A Pentagon official said much of the training involved teaching Ukrainian troops to go on the offensive rather than stay on the defensive. For years, Ukrainian troops have worked on defensive tactics as Russian-backed separatists launched attacks in eastern Ukraine. When Moscow launched its full-scale invasion last year, Ukrainian forces put their defensive operations on the line, denying Russia the swift victory it had expected.
If the counter-offensive stalls and the conflict turns into a protracted insurgency, there are questions about whether Western countries will continue to support Ukraine with the current level of military aid. The upcoming elections in some of those countries, notably the United States, represent another potential pitfall for future aid.
But if Ukraine can pull off a series of tactical victories and string them into successive pivots, Kiev could be able to force Moscow’s hand at the negotiating table, US officials say.
“Ukraine’s success in the counter-offensive would do two things,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in Washington last week. “It would strengthen his position at every negotiating table and could also lead Putin to finally focus on negotiating an end to the war he started.”