The Reason Ukraine Considers Military Training An Asymmetric Advantage

Ukraine increasingly believes that training and discipline provides it with an asymmetrical advantage over the Russian military, which allows it to defeat - repeatedly - more numerous forces by employing more innovative tactics that deliver better results. JL 

Sevgil Musaeva and Valentyna Romanenko report in Ukraine Pravda:

Ukraine now is raising the level of professionalisation, including combat training, retraining, promoting new technology and new tactics. To gain an advantage over poorly trained but more numerous Russian forces, the Ukrainian army must focus on professionalising its personnel, providing quality training, and introducing new tactics and technology. "If we are going to win, we need an asymmetrical way. How did the Spartans dominate the Aegean and win the Persian War with 4,000 free citizens compared to tens of thousands in other polities or states? Because of the quality of combat training, and the professionalism of the army and commanders.

Andrii Biletskyi, Commander of the 3rd Assault Brigade, has said that in order to gain an advantage over poorly trained but more numerous Russian forces, the Ukrainian army must focus on professionalising its personnel, providing quality training, and introducing new tactics and technology.

Source: Biletskyi in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda

Details: Ukrainska Pravda asked Biletskyi what Ukraine needs to do to win the war against the Russian Federation, the full-scale phase of which has been going on for more than one and a half years.

As Biletskyi explains, despite NATO standards, the Ukrainian army is in many ways a post-Soviet structure. It is also confronting the post-Soviet Russian army, which has its own weaknesses and strengths.

Biletskyi said that for example, one weakness of the Russian side is that their ground personnel will never be of high quality because they simply do not have the time to learn and improve.

"In other words, it’s very bad human material that is fighting on their side, which is also completely unprofessional. That’s on the one hand. On the other hand, they have a lot of this material, to put it politely," Biletskyi noted.

 

So if Ukrainian forces consist of untrained, poorly motivated units against untrained, poorly motivated Russian units, sooner or later the Russians will break the Ukrainians for an elementary reason – because they outnumber us, Biletskyi added.

Quote: "If we are going to win, we need an asymmetrical way. How did the Spartans dominate the Aegean region and win the Persian War with 4,000 free citizens compared to tens of thousands in other polities or states? Why? Because of the quality of combat training, and the professionalism of the army and commanders.

An extremely important issue for Ukraine right now is professionalisation: raising the level of combat training, retraining, promoting new technology, new tactics, and very rapid retraining of people."