An expert on military strategy has revealed that Russian troops continue to make glaring tactical errors in their latest military offensive in Avdiivka, Ukraine.
George Barros, an analyst from the Institute for the Study of War, highlighted the lack of coordination and basic tactical mistakes among Russian forces as they marched to take the city of Avdiivka.
Speaking to The Telegraph’s podcast, “Ukraine: The Latest”, Barros began by noting that the poor quality of the attack and the lack of coordination were not surprising, given the track record of Russian forces.
What particularly astonished him was an incident that occurred on October 11, where a viral combat photo showed a column of Russian vehicles advancing towards Avdiivka’s southern flank.
In this image, one of the lead vehicles in the Russian column flipped over and fell into a reservoir.
But it wasn’t the accident itself that was the primary concern for Barros; rather, it was the striking similarity between this column’s dense and poorly spaced formation and those observed during Russia’s attempted advance on Kyiv in early 2022.
He said: “It was not surprising to see the quality of the attack, or the lack thereof, and the lack of coordination. That was not surprising.
“What really astonished me was on October 11 or 12, I saw this viral piece of combat photo showing a column of Russian vehicles advancing towards Adviivka southern flank, and one of the lead vehicles in this column flipped over and fell into a reservoir which was kind of humouring.
“But the column itself was very densely packed, they weren’t spaced out very well.
“And it reminded me of the exact same columns that we saw when they attempted to drive on Kyiv back from early 2022.
“And it was interesting to see that over the course of the last 19-20 months of fighting it seems that there are certain Russian units that still have not been able to master or at least course-correct from basic tactical mistakes, which was surprising.
“And I think it’s a positive indicator that the quality of the Russian troops is not improving, so the key factor that they’re trying to leverage is going to be replacement and mass.”
