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The name says it all. The situation is simply
morbid. War is not a fist fight. It is a complex organization of three hierarchies
-- strategic, operational and tactical -- separated by time and distance. The strategic layer takes years, even perhaps
a decade. This is the plan for war. During this time, the aggressor plans and
implements operations involving the target country's domestic and international
politics, intelligence gathering, insinuations, and staging of events. They may
enlist intelligence offices and politicians. Behind the scenes, they may
organize developments that even if noticed will soon be forgotten by regular
folks like you and me. This stage takes the longest, and if your plan was to conquer
territory, that won't happen here, because this portion consists of years of laying
the groundwork. The next stage is operational. This is the
actual attack, and it follows the years of planning and intelligence gathering.
Here, distance matters. Now the offensive side tries to grab the territory that
for so many years it dreamed of taking over by killing people. The results depend
on how well your strategic layer was executed. It is here where you use all the
preparation and intelligence gathering to gain the biggest advantage and
conquer the most territory. This stage usually sees territorial gain of tens of
miles per day, resulting in gains of a hundred or more miles. It lasts as long
as necessary to achieve the goal, as long as the supply lines reach the front
line, or until the offensive is stopped. The third and final stage is tactical. By
definition, tactics are situational. Usually, this is when the aggressor stops
either because it has achieved its goals or because it has been stymied by the
defense. The attacker then sees small gains of territory, perhaps five to ten
miles, sometimes none. It is here where the real combat starts. This is where
you plan positions, use tactics such as hit and run, maneuver to try to gain
advantage and hit your enemy by destroying its defensive positions and in the best-case
scenario winning the conflict. Russia spent a decade planning the war during
its strategic stage. The takeovers of Crimea and parts of Donbas were
implementations of Plan B. Plan A was to enslave Ukraine in perpetuity. But
that didn't happen. Instead, Russia got a revolution in Ukraine and the
takedown of its puppet president, Victor Yanukovich. For the next eight years,
Russia implemented its strategy of fostering dependence on its natural
resources among European and other world economies; consequently, the rest of
the world ignored Russia's murderous intent towards Ukraine. The full-fledged attack on February 24th
marked the beginning of the operational layer. Russia's failure to quickly triumph
over Ukraine was due to poor strategic planning. Russia mistakenly thought it
would be a cakewalk, and higher army officers even reserved tables at
restaurants in Kyiv to celebrate their victory. Tactics came into play after the Russians
were blocked. They tried maneuvering, but their limited knowledge of modern
warfare tactics led to failure there too. We also must give credit to the
Ukrainian army, the commanders and the men and women who exceeded the expectations
of the whole world. The Russian army gained territory, but they were also
pushed back from the north. They spread out too thinly over a huge territory.
Russians then concentrated their powers on limited directions - the south and
the east of Ukraine. Please remember that the initial plan failed. They did
attack from the north too and pulled out after realizing that there is no way they
could win by attacking Ukraine from all directions. This brings us to the situation today. After Ukraine stopped the multi-pronged offensive,
blocking Russia's goal to take over the whole country, the Russians turned to
tactical warfare. What is the nature of modern tactical warfare? Above all, Russians
use MLRS - multiple launch rocket systems. If you have never seen one in
action, look online. These things are petrifying, and they are shooting at
Ukrainian soldiers and civilians every day. They fire a large caliber round
every second with a general charge of 30 to 40 missiles. Now, multiply that by
four or five, which is the amount of truck mounted systems operated at a single
time. That's 200 rounds in less than a minute. If you think that this is the
end of things, no! There are another five truck crews about a mile away, firing
at the same Ukrainian position right after the first one is finished. Russians
use powerful ammunition that detonates with the force of small nuclear warheads
and even creates the beautiful mushroom of death after it explodes. Yeah, super
nice. What does Ukraine answer with? Nothing!
Ukraine doesn't have MLRSs. Our brothers and sisters dig themselves into a foxhole
and just wait it out, praying that the missiles do not land in their trench. All of Ukraine's allies, from Germany to the
USA, promised to send MLRS, but they sent none, not even one. Do you know what they
did send to counter the Russian MLRS weaponry? Cannons! We received cannons
that fire one round every two minutes or so; the Italian ones even fire up to
four per minute. Stack this up against 200 missiles in 30 seconds. As you read
this, Ukrainian soldiers are getting pounded with MLRSs and can shoot back once
with a cannon. Please imagine the horror: they fire once only to get pounded
again with another 200. Somewhere out there is a friend of mine, braving the
nonstop fire of Russian MLRSs. His last voice message to me said, “I don't know,
man, I really don't know.” I haven't heard from him in over a day, and there is
nothing I can do. I cannot help him. I cannot help the people of Ukraine and
obviously neither can NATO, USA or Western Europe. We are dying over here,
literally. Ukraine's soldiers stop the rapid fire with
their bodies. Those who survive send civilians upbeat videos to calm us down.
But we are not calm. I don't know where to call or write or how
loud I must scream for help. If you have any doubts about the reality of
the Ukrainian soldier - watch this video.
P.S. We need MLRSs! Serge A is of Ukrainian descent, grew up in Brooklyn and is volunteering in Ukraine as a legally armed member of a Territorial Defense Group. He was a columnist for the newspaper at Pace University which he attended as an undergrad.
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