Even junior officers have decision-making power at the front

War has been raging between Ukraine and Russia for eight months. In the armed forces of Volodymyr Zelensky (44) a strategy emerges that takes advantage of the incompetence of the Russian armed forces.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Ukraine’s chain of command encourages junior officers to make decisions on the battlefield. This authority was used to quickly exploit the foe’s weaknesses.

Russians slow themselves down

While Ukraine uses this speed, the Russians are slowed down by their own structures. Because the decision-making structure from the Soviet era remains in use.

Orders come from Moscow, the chain of command is long and inflexible. At the front, the individual officers and soldiers hardly have the opportunity to take the initiative themselves. Oleksiy Danilov (60), secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, confirms the advantages of the Ukrainian structures at the front.

Ukrainians use western model

“A young commander can make decisions depending on the situation and takes responsibility for himself, for his soldiers and for the area,” he told the Wall Street Journal. This strategy was achieved through the introduction of a command and control model from the West.

Without those models — and weapons — it would have been difficult for the Ukrainians to strategically outpace the Russians. It also remains clear: the Russian army is strong, but inflexible.

Putin does not have a ‘maneuverable army’

Eliot Cohen, 66, a military historian and strategist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told the paper that the Russians are capable of making big decisions, “but I wouldn’t call them an agile army.”

Ukraine also knows that this tactic is extremely important to them. “Without the high mobility, we would not have outsmarted the Russians in their maneuvers,” said Mykola Bielieskov, an employee of the National Institute of Strategic Studies in Kiev. (EU)