Ukraine wasting Western military training: German intelligence report

Ukraine's counteroffensive is failing to make progress because its army is not fully implementing the training it has received from the West, a leaked German intelligence document has revealed, blaming Ukraine’s lack of success on the tactics of its commanders.

According to an assessment paper by Bundeswehr, Ukraine is spreading its troops out too thinly on the front line and attacking with units composed of a few soldiers.

The confidential document that has been obtained by Germany’s Bild newspaper says that the Ukrainian soldiers trained by Western forces are showing "great learning success" but are let down by their commanders.

It further adds that the Ukrainian military favors promoting soldiers with combat experience over those who have received NATO training.

The document claimed that commanders can therefore show “considerable deficiencies in leadership” which lead to “wrong and dangerous decisions.”

According to the German army's assessment, Ukraine is sacrificing its advantage in manpower by splitting its Western-trained brigades into small units of just 10 to 30 men, insufficient to break through Russian lines.

“Some of the troop units are divided up in so many small sections that each troop unit does something, but a joint combat leadership is not recognizable,” the paper said.

It adds that the small unit sizes increase the risk of friendly fire and fail to group together enough Western-trained soldiers to be operationally effective.

MG