Karsten Opitz
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Karsten Opitz
@karstenary.bsky.social
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International Relations | Humanitarian Law | Innovation | Agile Strategy and Org. Development | Outdoor Stuff
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Important points on the fight of Ukraine against Russia - and the ability of democracies in warfare.

(Excerpt from Yaroslav Trofimov: Our enemies will vanish)
Excerpt from book: The new organizing principle was known as "mission command"-the idea that once the top commander's overall intent was clear, units were free to execute their missions as they saw fit, without asking for additional permission. Running an army this way requires a high degree of trust, something that comes more naturally in a democracy. It was the secret to Ukraine's re-silience. "This is what saved Ukraine at the outset of the war. When the offensives began on many operational directions, one of the goals of the Russians was to overwhelm Ukraine by the quantity of engagements. If the approach had remained centralized, Ukraine wouldn't have been able to manage it. The command systems would have been overloaded, and commanders would have had to make a multitude of decisions without knowing what is happening on the ground, without being able to visit the troops," said Andriy Zagorodnyuk, who headed the reforms project at the ministry of defense under Poroshenko and served as Zelensky's defense minister in 2019 and 2020. "It would have been catastrophic." …believing that Russians and Ukrainians are one people, they assumed that the Ukrainians thought just as they did. In a war between a big Soviet army and a small Soviet army, the outcome would have been preordained. But the Ukrainians, it turned out, had a different mindset—and a different plan.
December 7, 2024 at 8:33 PM