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ADAPTIVE INDOMITABLE UKRAINE's Brave Choice ... Skill & Tech Instead of Russia's Sheer Mass [1]

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Date: 2025-09-10

A couple of days ago our fellow Kossack, Mr. Completely, posted the following comment as part of the discussion on my diary “ADAPTIVE INDOMITABLE UKRAINE Turns Russia’s Failed Dobropilliya Advance Into A Killing Field” .. www.dailykos.com/...

It’s been going on for quite some time; and perhaps not all one-sided either; but I think one factor here is that the quality of Russian troops; from the individual Ivan, up to the various units; is severely degrading. Putin’s been scraping the bottom of the barrel, though it is a deep barrel, and it’s showing in instances like this.

I joked with him that he had anticipated the gist of my next diary. He had indeed. Thanks, my friend.

Since the 2022 onset of the full scale Russian invasion, the seemingly inexorable creep of Russian red across maps of the front lines has consistently caused observers to wonder, nay, worry that Ukraine just cannot seem to to marshal enough soldiers to man every inch of the now nearly 1,200 km battle trace. It is no doubt a huge concern ... one that even some Ukrainian front line soldiers regularly bring up in the media … the difficulties they have experienced countering wave after wave of seemingly endless Russian “meat assaults”.

As worrisome and concerning as these reports are, Ukrainians are nevertheless finding ways to keep their defensive lines largely intact … bending but not breaking … even as the Russian red incrementally creeps on. But recent events on the battle lines, perhaps beginning with Ukraine stopping and then in quick order reversing the reported 50,000 man invasion of Sumy Oblast, the equally stalwart defense of Kharkiv and most recently the blazing aggressive repulse and ongoing destruction of the Russian salient in Dobropilliya have began to allay fears about the manpower issue. Similarly, these successes have once again provoked and illuminated the question of QUALITY versus QUANTITY when it comes to effective projection of force and prosecution of war aims.

Historically, there have been two main models of national force generation: a professional, regular force that relies on quality through training and technology and on the other hand a conscription-based force that emphasizes quantity obtained from a whole-of-society willingness to mobilize. To date, the Ukrainian experiences have been interpreted as the validation of the second model. Ukraine initially seemed to exemplify a “rush to the colors,” revolutionary levée en masse mobilization, recalling the elementary fervor expressed by the French people when “la Patrie” found itself in mortal danger from foreign invasion after the French Revolution.

But as the Russo-Ukrainian war nears its 4th year, Ukraine, with help from her allies appears to be moving away from the “rush to the colors” and inching closer and closer to a hybrid of the two models … increasingly favoring the first model … a professional, regular force that relies on quality through training and technology:

Ukraine’s Not-So-Whole-of-Society at War: Force Generation in Modern Developed Societies While this hybrid model does not favor the clean and short, decisive, or shock-and-awe kind of war advocated by professional Western militaries, it will increase state survivability. Admittedly, though, bloody attrition would be a hallmark of this model of force generation which is, sadly, not unfamiliar to democracies. The war in Ukraine emphasizes the strength of defense over offense and illustrates how soldiers with a couple of weeks of training have been able to hold their ground. And since NATO is on the political defensive and aims at war prevention and dissuasion, there is one possible bright spot: The prospect of attritional warfare may be so unappetizing to potential aggressors that it offers prospects for the effectiveness of conventional deterrence. publications.armywarcollege.edu/...

But Russia which started the war largely with the professional army model appears to be reversing day by day to the second model as its now unbelievably high rate of casualties is forcing it to scour far and wide for what seems at times to be the acceptance of any ambulatory persons willing to go to fight in Ukraine but at increasingly very exorbitant bounties ... putting additional stresses on Russia’s tattered national purse. Putin has been visibly reluctant, for internal Russian political reasons, to go fully to the second model but the trends, including yesterday’s clear infringement of Poland’s air space in a not so veiled attempt to draw NATO into the war, increasingly point to the real possibility of some form of national mobilization. All he needs is to create a pretext which will be acceptable enough to the Russian street to gin up the nationalistic fervor. We shall soon see.

Both armies cannot escape the saliency of the QUALITY versus QUANTITY conundrum. But it would appear that by her recent moves Ukraine has made a decision in favor of QUALITY. This is borne out by what some observers see as a brave decision and also a show of confidence in their own abilities against the Russians … in a recent request the government of Ukraine asked her Western partners who have being training Ukrainian soldiers to extend the training period for Ukrainian soldiers by at least an extra two weeks, if not longer:

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/9/10/2341589/-ADAPTIVE-INDOMITABLE-UKRAINE-s-Brave-Choice-Skill-Tech-Instead-of-Russia-s-Sheer-Mass?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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