>As a non-military minded observer, my first thoughts were, "How much resolve does the Russian soldier have in this war?" There must be many personal connections between Ukranian and Russian soldiers and citzens of the other country. Relatives, friends, business colleagues. As a soldier aiming his rifle or firing a barrage of rockets, is he wondering if the person on the other end is a cousin? Or college friend?
This is much more of a factor than what you even say. A significant portion of troops are not interested in killing the enemy. Especially true of conscripts, some conscript platoons were near 100% incapable of shooting at the enemy that the enemy could slaughter them all.
He discovered that either people wont stick their head out of the hole and instead shoot at tree tops. Hoping to scare them off? Or they simply never shot their rifle even once. People certainly criticize this, but I criticize the critics. This guy is 100% right and a large part why conscription doesnt work.
That changes up with general mobilization, if people are defending their own country like vietnam... it's just that much worse because those people are trying to repel invaders. They will shoot the invaders. Their lives have been interrupted and the interrupters must be killed.
So when non-special forces troops actually enter the cities and come up against general mobilization. Russians will take huge losses because those troops will not shoot back directly at the enemy.
I also have a theory, the huge list of allies of ukraine have special forces deployed in proxy war. We will never know the truth obviously. Russian troops who think they are fighting civilians are coming up against some of the best of the best in the world. Russia can't even tell the troops they might be coming up against other special forces. It would be tremendously demoralizing.
This is much more of a factor than what you even say. A significant portion of troops are not interested in killing the enemy. Especially true of conscripts, some conscript platoons were near 100% incapable of shooting at the enemy that the enemy could slaughter them all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.L.A._Marshall
He discovered that either people wont stick their head out of the hole and instead shoot at tree tops. Hoping to scare them off? Or they simply never shot their rifle even once. People certainly criticize this, but I criticize the critics. This guy is 100% right and a large part why conscription doesnt work.
That changes up with general mobilization, if people are defending their own country like vietnam... it's just that much worse because those people are trying to repel invaders. They will shoot the invaders. Their lives have been interrupted and the interrupters must be killed.
So when non-special forces troops actually enter the cities and come up against general mobilization. Russians will take huge losses because those troops will not shoot back directly at the enemy.
I also have a theory, the huge list of allies of ukraine have special forces deployed in proxy war. We will never know the truth obviously. Russian troops who think they are fighting civilians are coming up against some of the best of the best in the world. Russia can't even tell the troops they might be coming up against other special forces. It would be tremendously demoralizing.