Comments by "Stephen Sipe" (@stephensipe5405) on "EXPLAINED: Ukraine’s Top General Admits Mistakes, Says 'Lives Are Cheap in Russia'" video.

  1. The way you tell it, GEN Zaluzhny is carping like a Basic Trainee on their 1ST day in the field!!! Is this the Senior Commander of Ukrainian Military Forces??? GEN Zaluzhny started off great stating he miscalculated Russia’s ability to tolerate losses. I great he has no Ukrainian Military Intelligence Officers with balls enough to remind him of Russian history. Attrition of Russian artillery, air defenses, and tanks are good. Trying to attrit troops is foolhardy. The GEN Zaluzhny went on to list all the gadgets he would like to have. What defeatist BS!!! President Zelinsky should kick GEN Zaluzhny right in the kneecaps for making quibbling public remarks. These are all like to haves Ukraine should bring to the US and Germany for development. I would have added MICLICs with a 1500K explosive cord. It has to clear minimum direct fire MBT range. None of this fixes the real Ukrainian problems. Ukraine got 3 years of NATO quality NCO trining from 2018 to 2022 (JAN). Most Ukrainian Units benefited from this training. However, NCOs only lead Squads (5-15 troops) and Platoons (11-33 troops). Only rarely do NCOs lead Companies (100-120 troops). Is it any wonder most Ukrainian attacks are combinations of small NCO lead advances? The problem is Offensives are planned by Officers. NATO Militaries have Staffs at every level from Battalion, to Brigade, to Division, to Corp doing battle planning for their slice of the battlefield. It would take the Ukrainian Military 7-10 years to NATO standards. This includes classroom training, simulation training with StaffEx, and field training. Currently Ukrainian Officers are using legacy Soviet schemes of maneuver and battlefield thinking. As Notorious BIG (Biggie) would say, “You gotta know what you don’t know!” GEN Zaluzhny doesn’t get it. In addition to training, the Ukrainian Military uses legacy Soviet Unit Organization. This might appear small, but it isn’t. Soviet Units are smaller with less Command flexibility at each level. This pushes decision making and reaction responses to higher Command levels. This is always a slower response process. It would take 1-2 years to reorganize all Ukrainian Units to NATO organization. NCOs could do most of the physical reorganization while Officers are going through their training. If GEN Zaluzhny had stated the Ukrainian Military required NATO organization and Officers needed NATO training but the training time line as too short for a 2023 Spring/Summer Offensive season, I would have concurred. There was greater risk going off with rushed NATO training then staying with legacy Soviet Unit organization and schemes of maneuver. Nevertheless, how does GEN Zaluzhny go forward? Here are some ideas gleaned from the Principles of War: 1: Exploit Successes: For example, in Bahkmut South Flank, add 3-5 Brigade Armor Teams with 2 Brigade Infantry Teams in Reserve to clear Cities. Capture the M03-H32 road junction. Also, simultaneously push south to envelop Horlivka. Use the Infantry to clear Horlivka. 2: Stop wasting unsupported Units in a sideshow across the Dnipro River. 3: Economy Of Force: Zaporizhzhya Oblast has 6 Offensive areas. Consolidating on 1 area 15K wide with 2 Axis of Advance, will concentrate efforts. Adding in Dnipro Units will help. Push to the Azov Sea by FEB, 2024. 4: Build defensive layers on Adiivka Flanks using mines in depth like the Russians.
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