- Russian forces seized the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka earlier this month but paid a heavy price.
- The ISW said the number of Russian fatalities likely exceeds those killed in the Soviet-Afghan war.
- Russia has often used costly “human wave” tactics to achieve its military objectives in Ukraine.
Russian tactics haven’t changed. Throw poorly equipped bodies at the enemy. When they’re shot down, throw even worse-equipped bodies at the enemy, tell them to pick up the previously fallen’s gear and move forward. Repeat.
“The one with the rifle shoots. The one without follows. When the one with the rifle is killed, the one without picks up the rifle and shoots.”
That part of Enemy at the Gates is so fuckin bleak and sobering.
It’s the Zapp Brannigan method.
Apparently the newer groups of contractniki are better equipped and trained than before. The time of trowing untrained bodies into trenches is over.
Chinese companies can manufacture a shit load of gear for cheap. And probably they are not short on AK’s.
Russian tactics are not refined, but there is no limit to what you can achieve with an infinite amount of expendable labor.
Edit: I have no clue why this is downvoted
Good thing the Kremlin rules over a country with a serious demographic problem and most citizens oppose conscription.
There’s a reason people from other countries in Russian uniforms are showing up dead in Ukrainian mud.
Sure, same reason DPR and LPR volunteers/voluntold bore the brunt of early war offensives. They are not actual Russians, and not MOD so their deaths do not count. After them, Russian minorities from the outer regions, Neither do foreign fighters. They are the current iteration of the prison battalions.