Four Years Of The Ukraine Invasion: Has Russia’s Military Learned To Fight A Better War?

(Mike Eckel – RFE/RL) Prior to Ukraine, the last time Russia all-out invaded another sovereign country was Georgia. Moscow was victorious after the 16-day conflict in 2008, but it was messy and showed that Russia’s armed forces needed a major upgrade. Four years ago, a semi-reformed Russian military was again put to the test, when hundreds of thousands of troops poured into Ukraine. Judging by the eyewatering casualties — more than 1.2 million killed and wounded and counting — it’s been even messier. And Moscow still is not victorious. But Russia’s armed forces are learning. The question is how much they’ve learned since February 24, 2022. “They’re adapting to the battlefield conditions, but the more permanent changes to the force in terms of strategy and operations will come after,” Dara Massicot, a longtime expert on Russia’s armed forces and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told RFE/RL. “I would characterize what the Russian military has undergone as adaptation rather than reform, given that a lot of it seems to be driven by fairly immediate pressures,” said Nick Reynolds, a land warfare fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London think tank. – Four Years Of The Ukraine Invasion: Has Russia’s Military Learned To Fight A Better War?