Russia's Combat Compliance Problem is Worse Than You Think

Thanks!

using prisoners and mobilized unmotivated people who are basically slaves doesn't make a good fighting force, who would have thought?

0:57 not just any russian that tries to flee, this also applies to russians who try to surrender to ukraine as well. Russia has complete and utter disdain for their own soldiers, they view them as nothing more than meat. Monetary funds aren't paid because they're pocketed, and patriotism only gets you so far. Training is also sub par.

Old habits die hard for Russian federation.

King Leonidas: You have many slaves, Xerxes, but few warriors. It won't be long before they fear my spears more than your whips.

Why does this sound familiar............ Soviet troops in WWII: PRIVYET!

Imagine the public backlash if the US was doing this to their soldiers.

Vladimir Pullout

The lack of an independent civil society and media in Russia surely plays a part in this. If patriotism and political dialogue is entirely state controlled then people just become cynical to it. If you had, for example, multiple disparate political and social movements, independent of the state, if these were to ‘rally around the flag’ in time of war, it would appear more genuine and build a political consensus for the actions of the state. When you know ‘people like you’ believe in the cause then you will feel much more motivated to chip in. If the state is only offering you flag waving, 80 year old war songs and the often proven promises of marginally higher wages then you’re probably gonna want to stay at home. This is why countries such as Ukraine now, Britain in world war 2 or the US after 911 were able to pull together a collective response which required very little coercion. Of course the cynics and Russian trolls might like to believe that national consent for war can ONLY be manufactured through targeted propaganda, but the results speak for themselves. No one forced people like Tony Benn or Joe Bidens son Beau to fight for their country but these two men did so out of personal principles formed through independent political thought rather than a forced patriotism.

"cannon fooder" tactics are speciality of russians for last century at least/

I've only ever heard them called Blocking Detatchments. Barrier Troops sounds like a Magic the Gathering thing. Another aspect that's missing is the blocking detachments are also a ready reserve of experienced, disciplined and well armed troops that can reinforce sagging lines, counter enemy break throughs, or exploit an allied break throughs. Russia hasn't had the initiative on the front since the opening weeks of the invasion, even on the defensive, Ukraine is usually the one dictating the nature of the battles. So a whole 3/4ths of the tactic's viability in a WWII sense is already missing since Russia can not efficate change on the Battlefield.

A great synopsis of Russia's morale/morality failures.

I used to think that Russia had a mighty military, but this war has shown they were always a huge joke.

You said "Could cause difficulties for Russia to be a global leader in the decades to come "? I'd say those difficulties have already arisen

Russia has fought all its wars like this. They don't understand any other strategy or tactic. At the start of the invasion they tried to use western tactics, but for lack of training, incomplete implementation and an obsolete top to bottom command hierarchy, they lost too much equipment, had to abandon a lot of their territorial gains and revert back to their old fashioned costly mass wave attacks. These work, but are costly for man and material and usually they have no forces left to hold the territorial gains.

If you need to aim your weapons at your own troops, odds are you were never going to win in the first place. That is the funny thing about final acts of desperation: by the time they are used, all that is still available for use is the worst stuff, which puts the odds of a success at the highest of the lowest... at best. There is a pretty big reason why the term "Zerg rush" is tied to a fictional species.

This is a very old thing to do. In the early middle ages and later periods random peasants armed with hay forks and sickles were forced to sacrifice themselves to attack the enemy in front of the regular armies. In German language they were called "bauernopfer". Needless to say they had a very small chance to survive. This extremely brutal method still exists in Russia. The peasants are now called "conscripts" . That's Russia guys!

This is why continuing to support Ukraine is so important even if frontline advances are minimal. Russia will eventually break.

And this is a country that wants to be taken seriously???

How do we get them to turn their weapons on the barrier forces? Risk dropping heavier weapons to them to combat armored vehicles? Give them communication devices to transmit blocking forces' positions? Guarantee not to fire on retreating forces and count on them overwhelming barrier units? Put up a bounty for soldiers and officers of known enforcer units?