តើអ្វីជាយុទ្ធវិធីសង្គ្រាមរបស់អ៊ុយក្រែនដែលធ្វើឱ្យរុស្ស៊ីពិបាកវាតទី?

The war in Ukraine has highlighted two things to Russia and the outside world: that Russia’s much-vaunted military revolution has been exaggerated and that Ukraine’s resistance to the invasion is total.

Russia’s military capabilities have been built up in Western eyes, particularly after its modernisation programme in the wake of the 2008 Georgian conflict. New equipment was ordered and training focused on realism as Russia’s armed forces were put on a more professional footing. A new doctrine, designed to give the military greater flexibility in responding to a variety of scenarios, was also developed.Russia’s new “hybrid” military tactics were highlighted by the relatively bloodless takeover of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, when “grey” operations – those below the threshold of actual conflict – were seen. Russian soldiers gradually infiltrated the region without firing a shot, their mere presence achieving Russia’s strategic aim of taking Crimea.

Since then, Russia’s military has been running increasingly sophisticated annual large-scale exercises and has had months to build up its forces on the border of Ukraine, amassing supplies, fuel and ammunition for an invasion that few on the ground in Ukraine and in the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk believed would actually happen.