Dear Readers:
According to this piece by reporter Sergei Gapchuk, one of the reasons Ukrainian soldiers are dying en masse at the Bakhmut front, is due to a specific type of NATO training they received. The training module is called COIN, which is short for “Counter-Insurgency”. In other words, NATO has been training Ukrainian soldiers to treat invading Russians as if they are some kind of Third-World partisan forces trying to overthrow the government. This model is unsuitable for a war between professional militaries, both of which possess heavy artillery.
[And let’s be polite and not even mention the fact that COIN was spectacularly unsuccessful even in those type of conflicts it was designed for, e.g., NATO’s occupation of Afghanistan.]
A lot of the inside scoop comes from captured Ukrainian POW’s, who related to the Russians about the lousy training they received. Given that these are prisoners, we need to take everything they say with a grain of salt, that goes without saying. They will want to please their captors by painting a dim picture. But still…
According to these Ukrainians, who were taken prisoner on the Bakhmut front, the COIN training they received from NATO did not take into account the real conditions of combat on the front lines, and thus produced more harm than good.
NATO’s COIN program was created, according to its own mission statement, to help official state forces fight against un-official “non-state” insurgents and partisans. It operates on several pre-assumptions, including the hypothesis that said insurgents do not possess heavy weapons and effective artillery. As the car mechanic once said, “Well, there’s your problem right there, ma’am!”
And this course of training, even as shitty as it is, was stripped down for the benefit of the Ukrainian students. Normally the training is supposed to take months. But Ukrainian “storm troopers”were given a quickie 20-day version; and infantry– just 14 days.
The result is what we see: the Bakhmut Slaughterhouse. In which even pro-Ukrainian sources estimate their guys have lost up to one battalion of cannon-fodder for every single day of the operation.
The Surovikin Factor
To add more depth to the Bakhmut story, I have this piece co-authored by Elena Afonina and Igor Yakunin. The title is:
The Russian Meatgrinder: Surovikin And the Collapse of NATO Tactics; Or: Why Western Instructors Are Unable To Quickly Train Ukrainians Into Universal Soldiers
In a desperate attempt to stop the Russians at Bakhmut, Ukraine is throwing all its reserves into the battle, while employing the most “advanced” NATO tactics [which they learned in their quickie course]. But General Surovikin is proving his very high qualifications, while building for the enemy a true, traditional “Russian meatgrinder” on the line of contact.
The reporters interview (on their radio station) a man named Viktor Litovkin, who is a retired Colonel (from the Soviet army) and now works as a military expert for TASS.
KP: We are hearing all the “hot” news from the Bakhmut-Artyomovsk front. Kiev admits that they have a problem. Conditions are difficult for our forces as well, but they are moving forward inexorably. Why is this place so strategically important for us?
Litovkin: Bakhmut is still technically under Ukrainian control, but factually this is Russian territory, which is why it is more correct to call it Artyomovsk, but anyhow, the main reason is because this is a railroad and highway hub. Through this hub roll trains and vehicles bringing weapons and supplies to the front line. There are salt mines near Artyomovsk, where caches of weapons are stored. Here we also find field hospitals for the Ukrainian wounded, and many other things as well.
KP: And reinforcements for the Ukrainian army?
Litovkin: That too. Although these reinforcements are not always well trained. But these reinforcements nonetheless are under the control of foreign, non-Ukrainian, Majors and Colonels; more often than not American or Polish instructors.
KP: The enemy is suffering huge losses there?
Litovkin: An unbelievable number. In the Donbass, Ukraine is simply plugging all the holes in their defense with human meat. Which is the main reason why it is so difficult for us to move forward. [yalensis: In other words, the “human meat defense” tactic is actually effective?]
KP: Our forces on that front are not as numerous [as that of the enemy]?
Litovkin: True, and this factor is also significant. But, on the other hand, we have more artillery placements, more rocket systems. And we will continue to move forward.
KP: But we move so slowly…
Litovkin: Because our opponent is sitting in, from an engineering standpoint, well-fortified defensive constructions. This is a well-built layered defense system, including concrete reinforced underground bunkers.
KP: Is it even possible to overcome them without losses [on our side]?
Litovkin: It’s possible, but difficult. Our commanders always try to avoid any casualties [on our side], they do everything they can to preserve the lives of our Russian soldiers.
KP: Why are these advanced NATO tactics not working for the Ukrainians?
Litovkin: Their training is eclectic. Kiev often sends their soldiers and officers to be trained abroad. But you have to understand, the foreigners are earning a lot of money by training these men. They can earn even more by speeding up the tempo of their tactical training. This training rarely meets the actual needs of soldiers conducting battle against a strong and serious army. Such as is the Russian army.
KP: Are you telling me that 2-3 weeks of training in Great Britain doesn’t turn Ukrainians into Rambo?
Litovkin: Ukrainians train on English, German, Czech polygons, and nowhere do they learn the practice of real battle. Okay, they learn to shoot at cardboard targets. They perform an exercise called “scouting mission”, or “how to set an ambush”. Nobody gets hurt in these simulations. Do you really think any of this prepares them to come up against an actual tank? Let alone a cruise missile?
KP: They don’t learn how to deal with a cruise missile?
Litovkin: Of course not. Moreover, Kiev does not possess the kind of air-defense systems which are capable of intercepting cruise missiles. And the Ukrainian trainees are not taught how to work contemporary air-defense systems. Those contemporary systems, which the West donated to Ukraine, it’s not Ukrainians working the controls, it’s members of the nations that donated these systems.
KP: But nonetheless, there are quite a lot of these systems?
Litovkin: No, just a miserable quantity, so far. Seven “Gepard” systems are inadequate to cover the sky for a distance of 1000 kilometers.
KP: Ukraine is losing men catastrophically.
Litovkin: Ursula von der Leyen named a figure of 100,000 men. But I believe even that figure was a serious under-estimation. Their losses are even more than that. According to the standard military formula, for every one soldier killed in action, there will be 3-4 wounded who later die of their wounds; and another 6-7 wounded or disfigured. From these statistics one can only imagine how many men Ukraine is losing on a daily basis.
Awful Avalanche 
“NATO has been training Ukrainian soldiers to treat invading Russians as if they are some kind of Third-World partisan forces trying to overthrow the government.”
WTF? They treat an army chock full of artillery, and overwhelming air power like insurgents? Is that the level of military Intelligence and intelligence of the West? Getting their arse whooped in Afghanistan they now want to fight according to a failing doctrine in a completely different scenario?
Does NATO actually know that it demonstrates its incompetence as a topic of study for generations of analysts, as an object of ridicule?
Speechless in the Atlantic….
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… But think of the financial incentives for the “players” involved, the kickbacks they pay to get the contract, and thereby the shared interests of relevant bureaucrats in abusing the ststem so that they get the kickbacks and try to avoid blame for the abuse.
Hey, this is the CORE problem of western MIC – FREEMARKETS – (psst … “free” in this context means manipulated/controlled/misdirected/hijacked – if you really think they are free markets I have a nice newly repaired Kerch bridge to sell you).
No need to use government officers/regular army officers to provide services like training: use the “freemarket” instead and get massive wads of tax-free cash in your pocket. Just use one of your regular contractors – you know, the ones you’ve been conspiring with the last 20 years to siphon off the river of cash flowing into Afghanistan – yes, those ones that were doing COIN training. Training not suitable? Never mind, these Ukrainians won’t know any better. Important thing is to get a contractor we have a good working relationship with, with a good record of siphoning off cash and sharing it with us. Those Ukrainians won’t last long, so then there’ll be nobody to tell the tale.
EVERYTHING IS BASED AROUND GENERATION OF PROFITS, NOTHING ELSE MATTERS!
– same reason that US weapons don’t work
– same reason that US weapons/training/anything is so expensive
– same reason that everything gets f***d up
– if you investigate deeply, probably you’ll find that is the most significant (of 200 plus) reason why the war in Afghanistan, (Iraq, … etc) was such a colossal failure.
The diametric opposite of the way the Russian MIC is structured – not surprisingly the results are also different!
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In other words, look at it from the personal point of view of the contractors, and the bureaucrats they are engaging with. As far as they are concerned, the actual capabilities of the trainees at the end of the training doesn’t matter, as long as the contractor get paid, the bureaucrat gets his kickback, and neither gets blamed.
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. [yalensis: In other words, the “human meat defense” tactic is actually effective?]
Only as long as you have something to throw into. That will come to an end at one point. And without much damage to the grinder.
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In Ukraine, NATO confronts well-armed soldiers and they don’t know how to do it. Note that the only Ucronazi successes have been the bombing of the civilian population and that is why Russia has had to transfer hundreds of thousands of people far from the front.
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Perhaps rather morbidly but this is a happy situation that Stavka is looking for. After all, as Clausewitz once said, the real goal of war is to destroy the enemy’s fighting ability so you can impose terms on him. So in this case of the SMO, territory is a little less important when compared to demilitarizing not just Ukraine but most of NATO who is running out of ammunition and resources.
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I wonder if anybody in NATO foresaw, they were creating a giant black hole in the center of Europe, which would suck in all their weapons, ammo, money, and even soldiers!
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On that note… I chuckled when I saw this tweet from Kuleba:
“We must not be subject to the whims of third countries that have stocks in warehouses but are unwilling to share them.”
Recently I noticed my downstairs neighbor grilling steaks for his family out in the common courtyard. I strode up to him indignantly: “I must not be subject to the whims of neighbors who have steaks, but are unwilling to share them with me.”
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Nato – no. The US absolutely. The US wants a giant black hole between Rich Europe and Russia/China. Essentially they have blown the Bridge on the OBOR route from China to Europe.
In the 3 wars (Ukrainian civil war, Russia vs Nato war being 1 & 2), US vs Europe (oft called US vs Germany) is the one US is winning.
It is certainly cheap relative to Afghanistan.
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as another comment said: the “human meat wall” only works as long as there’s an endless supply of cannon fodder. the russians have time on their side and have yet to “run out of missiles”.
“the trainers make a lot of money” sums up everything wrong with the west; not just in warfare but as a whole. the US and UK especially (well…fairfax, manhattan and london at least) is made up of “elites” who fail upward and are grossly overpaid for doing either made up sh_t (finance, insurance, etc) or military grifting. the trainers are human F-35s: expensive miltary expenditures that fail and go nowhere for years at a time.
i’d also agree with the 100K figure being low. for the reasons he gave but also because there are huge ares of land scattered with ukie corpses that are inaccessible for various reasons (mostly russians shooting anything that moves in said areas). once this is all over and the bones are recovered and counted i’m guessing it will be grim.
also grim: as i’ve mentioned before in various comments ukraine was already a crap country for women and girls; the amount of child porn and human trafficking was staggering before the SMO and now that most of the non-elderly/non-child males are either abroad or being destroyed on the battlefield i wonder if what’s left will be a giant brothel for western sex tourists. hopefully they can cross over the border and have a slightly better chance at a normal life when things have settled…?
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The official figures of Ukrainian dead that we hear daily from the Russian MOD consists (as I understand) from visual sightings done by drones; like, after an attack or tank battle, or something like that. The drone operators count the corpses. I wrote in a previous blogpost how the drone operators may even be paid a bonus for their kills, so it has to be as accurate as possible. If they blow up a whole tank, they might estimate how many guys in the tank.
What is not counted, is Ukrainian wounded who, say, were evacuated still alive, taken away, and then died in the field hospital.
It’s all quite ghastly and unbelievably barbaric; but there you have it.
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Thanks for this. I may have said this before but the survival rate for wounded Ukrainians is certain to be very low. No motivation, no training, no discipline, no experience, limited doctors and trained immediate first aid. 12 or 20 days of training is unlikely to teach urgent medical treatment or the need to get people back within minutes to avoid death by loss of blood.
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Sheesh Y…don’t you know you’re never supposed to…
“interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
With apologies to Cmdr. Bonaparte and…all those soldiers, on both sides, who are being being sacrificed upon a bonfire of vanities for the amusement of a tiny but powerful group of residents in the environs of DC & London.
And in spite of some of the comments here, those Ukrainian who are being killed, maimed and psychologically stripped of their humanity are, for the most part, just trying to be good soldiers. They’re just following the orders of commanders who sip champagne and nosh caviar in the comfort of their resplendent “bunkers” while the the people of Ukrainia are torn to shreds.
Let this thing end soon…and not to the satisfaction of the creatures who infested the Cheney/Obama/Biden administration [singular intended]. Those parasites started this war and..as soon as they were back in power, they saw to it’s fullest prosecution in spite of Russia pleading with them not to go through with it. We, the USA, hung men in Nuremberg, and rightly so, who had far less guilt.
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I get you. A lot of people are losing their humanity, and that upsets me. Check out this tweet by Intel Slava, I don’t know how these guys actually get away with this, there are supposed to be hate-speech laws in Russia.
I mean, these particular POW’s may or may not be Nazis. I don’t know that they are not just simple working guys drafted into the army. To call them pigs without even knowing who they are?
Well, at least they are still alive. Intel Slava could have shown us their gruesome deaths, set to hip-hop music.
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This is why I quit following Intel Slava and other Telegram channels like AZMilitary. Now, it’s just Rybar and online videos.
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I’ll see if I can find Rybar. As a blogger I do have a need for more immediate battleground sources than what is supplied by Russian MSM. Plus, as the war progresses, Russian MSM is getting ever-more tight-lipped in what it puts out, if you know what I mean.
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‘Systema.’
When you dig that, you dig Russia. 154 German division in the East [grinded to dust by Soviet forces] and 84 throughout the rest of Europe, is all you need to know about reality, and Russia’s ability to deliver victory.
I grew up on a diet where ‘we’ were the best of the best [no questions asked or answered]. I thought I knew history well, only to realize [later on in life] that I was living one, big, fat lie.
Today, it’s all obvious for those willing to see. For others, the blinkers are firmly in place, and the shadows keep dancing on the walls, infinitely.
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Looks like waves and waves of Ukrainians are rushing to fight in suicidal missions.
It reminds me of ISIS and al-Qaeda militants in Syria.
Those fighters were taking a lot of captagon.
So I wonder if it’s not the case of ukrainian soldiers and foreign mercenaries as well.
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