In the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, due to the large gap in strength between the two sides, coupled with the basic loss of air superiority, the Ukrainian army was unable to confront the Russian army head-on but often used guerrilla warfare to avoid the reality and attack the relatively isolated small Russian army. units or military aircraft.
Judging from the videos and pictures published on the Internet, the Ukrainian army has achieved a lot of results in the guerrilla warfare, and the Russian army has suffered a certain loss of equipment, including the Su-35 heavy fighter jet, the “Doyle” air defense missile system and the T-80BVM master. Active-duty advanced equipment such as battle tanks. In this regard, the Russian army has also taken certain measures against guerrilla warfare, strengthening the attack on the guerrilla warfare infantry group of the Ukrainian army
New Features of Ukrainian Guerrilla Warfare
Judging from the history of human warfare spanning thousands of years, guerrilla warfare is a tactical warfare method with a long history. In many wars in ancient and modern China and abroad, guerrilla tactics are usually used when the weaker side fights against the stronger side. In the many modern local wars since the end of World War II, we can also see the emergence of new forms of guerrilla tactics with the development of the times. For example, in the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese People’s Army and the South Vietnamese guerrillas launched a jungle guerrilla war against the US and South Vietnamese government forces; in the 1980s in Afghanistan, the anti-Soviet guerrillas launched a mountain guerrilla war against the Soviet army; Centuries later, on the battlefield in Iraq, the anti-American armed forces launched an urban guerrilla war against the U.S. military.
However, in this Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, the guerrilla warfare launched by the Ukrainian army against the Russian army has shown new characteristics that are different from any previous guerrilla warfare, which deserves high attention.
First of all, the guerrilla warfare launched by the Ukrainian army against the Russian army was supported by the comprehensive intelligence and information system of NATO military forces. In addition, the civil communication network in Ukraine was basically smooth, and the Ukrainian people uploaded a large number of videos and pictures of the actions of the Russian army. A relatively one-way information transparency situation that is beneficial to the Ukrainian army and disadvantageous to the Russian army. It can be said that the guerrilla warfare of the Ukrainian army this time is a new era of guerrilla warfare launched under high-tech conditions, which fully proves the correctness of the saying “intelligence information is power”.
Although NATO military forces did not directly intervene in the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, they used almost all operational and tactical aerial reconnaissance platforms to monitor and reconnaissance the deployment of Russian military operations, including the US Navy EP-3E electronic reconnaissance aircraft and the Italian Air Force G550CAEW airborne early warning aircraft. , E-3 airborne early warning aircraft, P-3C and P-8A anti-submarine patrol aircraft, US Army RC-12X electronic reconnaissance aircraft, US Air Force RC-135W/V/U electronic reconnaissance aircraft, US Air Force RQ-4 high altitude long endurance without Human reconnaissance aircraft, U.S. Air Force E-8C battlefield surveillance aircraft, etc. In addition, Sweden, as a neutral country, also sent two small electronic reconnaissance aircraft S100D and S102B to participate in the reconnaissance operation against the Russian army.
The cruising trajectories of these special planes are all over Belarus and Ukraine, extending all the way to the sky over the Black Sea, forming a “semi-encirclement” of western Russia. On February 22, before the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, the U.S. Air Force RQ-4 high-altitude long-endurance unmanned reconnaissance aircraft even penetrated deep into the Ukrainian airspace and conducted multiple cruise flights along the Russian line of actual control in eastern Ukraine. After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, NATO aircraft rarely entered Ukrainian airspace. However, even flying around Belarus, Ukraine and over the Black Sea, these NATO special aircraft are enough to know every move of the Russian military.
After obtaining a large amount of information on the deployment of Russian ground, air and maritime forces, NATO and the Ukrainian army have achieved sufficient information sharing. As a result, the Ukrainian army was able to obtain stronger intelligence and information support when its military strength was far weaker than that of the Russian army, and when the conflict broke out, it was fully attacked by the Russian army and gradually lost its air supremacy. Therefore, we can see that the Ukrainian army has adopted targeted countermeasures against the Russian army’s long-range interspersed assault tactics in the early stage of the conflict: on the one hand, the main Ukrainian army in the eastern Ukrainian region is based in various towns. Defense, relying on relatively sufficient material reserves and a complex urban warfare environment to resist the offensive of the Russian army and the pro-Russian armed forces in eastern Ukraine, do everything possible to consume the opponent’s strength and strive for more delay. On the other hand, in response to the Russian army’s assault on the capital Kyiv, in addition to adopting the tactics of sticking to defense and timely counterattack, it is more a high-mobility guerrilla war with a large number of only a few people with the support of comprehensive NATO intelligence information. The team ambushed the logistical support, air defense, command and even electronic warfare units of the Russian army.
Many of these Russian troops are weak in their own defense capabilities. In addition, the main assault troops have already penetrated into the depths of Ukraine, and it is difficult to draw troops to protect them. Therefore, once faced with the high-mobility guerrilla warfare group of the Ukrainian army, there is almost no Fight back. The Ukrainian high-mobility guerrilla warfare team, based on the Russian military intelligence information provided by NATO, chose a suitable ambush location along the road, concentrated fire after the Russian troops entered the ambush circle, and then quickly withdrew their equipment and boarded a high-mobility wheeled armored vehicle. The withdrawal basically leaves no chance for the Russian army to counterattack. Therefore, in the initial encounter with such an ambush, the Russian army was almost helpless.