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For the past four months, people around the world have witnessed the macabre process of Russian forces making repeated assaults near the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut for only the tiniest of gains. By some counts, Russia has lost about five of its soldiers for every Ukrainian soldier lostto say nothing of massive equipment losses. Although in theory a country can win a war by using its military forces to make forward assaults against an enemys forces, thats just not a smart way to fight. Military technology long ago evolved to arm both sides in conflicts with extremely lethal weaponry, and any army that tries to approach this machinery head-on is likely to suffer major, and in some cases horrific, losses.

Far more effective is to weaken your opponents forces before they get to the battlefield. You can limit what military infrastructure theyre able to build, make sure what they do build is substandard, hamper their ability to train troops to operate what they build, and hinder them from deploying their resources to the battlefield. These steps are doubly effective in that they save your own forces while degrading the other sides. Over the past two centuries, the powers that have emerged triumphant have been the ones that not only fought the enemy on the battlefield but also targeted its production and deployment systemsas the Union did by controlling the waters around the Confederacy during the Civil War and as the United States and Britain did from the air against Nazi Germany.

Eliot A. Cohen: The shortest path to peace

In light of such dynamics, the manner in which the West is supporting Ukraines war effort is deeply frustrating. Though NATO countries have a variety of systems that can target Russian forces deep behind their lines, recent aid has been overwhelmingly geared toward preparing Ukraine to make direct assaults against the Russian army. The most widely discussed forms of equipmentsuch as Leopard 2 tanks, Bradley armored personnel carriers, and even Archer long-range artilleryare not the kinds of systems that can disrupt or degrade Russian forces far behind the front lines.

In short, Ukraine is being made to fight the war the hard way, not the smart way.

Ukrainian forces have indeed been pushing back against Russia at the front. But when they have been able to create or obtain the right technology, they have also attacked Russian supply and troop-deployment chains. This approach to war was probably most evident last summer, when the Ukrainians, as soon as they gained access to HIMARS rocket launchers and other Western multiple-rocket-launcher systems, embarked on a highly effective campaign against Russian supply points from Kherson to the Donbas. They managed to wreck a logistics system that had been supplying the Russian armies with huge amounts of firepower daily.

Almost immediately the Russians had to move their large supply depots out of range of the Ukrainians new rocket launchers, keeping essential equipment much farther from the front. This has severely limited Russias operations. It can fire significantly fewer shells each day and apparently can concentrate fewer vehicles on the front. The area where the Russians can properly supply their forces for operations has shrunk.

This overall approach led the Ukrainians to one of their great successes last year: the liberation of the west bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson province. When faced with a large, relatively experienced Russian force around the city of Kherson, the Ukrainians tried two different tacks. One involved direct armed assaults against the Russian salient west of the river. These assaults achieved at best modest results. The Ukrainians were able at points to push the Russian front back a few miles, but they were never able to break the line for any major gain.

Yet, in the end, the Russian army withdrew from Kherson last fall. Why was that? Because the other tack had made its supply situation more and more tenuous: After a months-long Ukrainian campaign targeting Russian-held depots, bridges, and river crossings, Russian commanders decided that Kherson was not strategically valuable enough to be worth the effort to hold it. The attacks on Russian supplies and logistics, which sapped their ability to deploy and maintain forces, were what made the difference.

Eliot A. Cohen: Western aid to Ukraine is still not enough

The tanks and other assistance that Ukraine is currently receiving will help it attack the Russian army directlywhich appears likely in the next few months. Ukrainian troops are training for such an operation in many partner countries and in Ukraine itself. They might well end up breaking the Russian line and advancing into the gapthe Ukrainian military has proved extremely resourceful and determined so farbut any success will likely be at significant cost to Ukraines own forces.

Their task would be easier if their allies had given them a stronger capacity to attack Russians from a greater distance. They clearly want to do it. One of the most extraordinary abilities the Ukrainians have shown is developing homegrown long-range systems, often incorporating drones, to attack Russian forces many miles from the front. Yet these homegrown systems are limited. NATO states could have given Ukraine longer-range equipmentincluding a missile system known as ATACMS and advanced fixed-wing aircraftor made a massive effort to help the Ukrainians develop and improve their own ranged systems.

Unfortunately, NATO states, including the U.S., have been reluctant to provide the Ukrainians with missile systems with too long of a range, seemingly for fear of escalating tensions with Russia. Instead of allowing the Ukrainians to degrade Russian forces far from the front line, Ukraine is being prepared to attack that line. The Ukrainians fortitude and ingenuity up to this point suggest that they could indeed accomplish their taskbut its been made much harder than it needs to be.

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The problem with how the West is supporting Ukraine - The Atlantic

A Russian T-72 tank is loaded on a truck by Ukrainian soldiers outside the town of Izyum on September 24, 2022. Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images

With several models of tanks to choose from, a large supply of armored vehicles, and an undeniable numbers advantage, Russia's fleet of tanks should ostensibly be decimating Ukraine's on the battlefield.

Instead, the struggling superpower has racked up error after error more than a year into the war, resulting in staggering equipment and battle losses as Ukraine attempts to even the playing field ahead of an influx of Western tanks expected to arrive in the coming months.

While the current state of the conflict a brutal stalemate in Bakhmut has not been defined by tank warfare, earlier in the war tank battles captured international attention, including when Ukraine used abandoned Russian tanks to shore up its counteroffensive in Kharkiv last year, and during Russia's failed siege of Vuhledar earlier this year, which was the site of the largest tank battle yet.

The armored vehicles' great strength on the battlefield is three-fold, according to Mark Cancian, a retired US Marine Corps colonel and a senior advisor with the Center for Strategic International Studies security program. Tanks provide mobility, firepower, and protection, Cancian told Insider, offering soldiers the luxury of moving and shooting at the same time.

But when it comes to tanks, practicality is only part of the equation. One of their key capabilities, according to Jeffrey Edmonds, a Russia expert at the Center for Naval Analyses and former US Army armor officer, is the psychological impact they have on the enemy, known as the "shock effect."

Symbolic or not, tank warfare remains a vital aspect of the ongoing war for both sides with Russia reportedly returning to storage to restock its depleted supply and Ukraine continuing its crusade for further aid.

Throughout the war, Russia has primarily relied on four different models of tanks: T-64s, T-72s, T-80s, and T-90s, with T-72s making up the bulk of their fleet thanks to years of Soviet-era production and more modern updates to the vehicles.

While each tank type has its own distinct style, Cancian and Edmonds told Insider that the vehicles are part of a similar lineage, with each generation of tank representing an updated version of the last.

As a general rule of thumb, "the newer the tank, the more capable it is," Cancian said of Russia's fleet.

But there are exceptions to the rule, the military experts said. The Russians relied on the T-72 so heavily during the Cold War that countless updates and refurbishments rendered the model's capabilities comparable or even superior to that of its direct successor, the T-80, which is generally considered less successful and reliable than the T-72 or the T-90, the latter of which is thought to be Russia's most advanced tank, Edmonds and Cancian said.

Russia's tank design is the product of lessons learned in World War II, according to Edmonds, and as a result, the vehicles tend to be smaller and lighter than Western tanks, as well as lower to the ground, which makes them harder to hit, but also less powerful in a matchup against a heavily-armored, NATO-sized vehicle.

Not accounting for wartime losses, Russia is believed to have started the conflict with an army fleet of about 3,000 tanks, according to several reports citing the International Institute for Strategic Studies nearly double the number of Ukraine's estimated 1,500-strong pre-war fleet.

Even with thousands of tanks on the battlefield, however, diversity among the vehicles has been slim, with Ukraine relying exclusively on its collection of T-64s and T-72s, the same types of tanks that Russia is using.

Enemies forced to face one another using near identical tanks is a result of the countries' shared Soviet history. When the war started, both sides were armed primarily with the same Soviet equipment. But even with the overlap, Cancian and Edmonds said the Russian versions of these tanks, in particular the T-72s, are likely more advanced than their Ukrainian counterparts, given years of updates that Ukraine never had reason to make.

On paper, Russia undoubtedly has the better specs. But the battlefield tells another story.

"The lethality of the system depends on much more than the system itself," Edmonds said of tanks. "It depends on the crew, but it also depends on how it fits into the battlefield and how it integrates with other components of combat power."

Not only has the Russian military been struggling to properly utilize its tanks, but it has also had one hell of a time trying to maintain them.

Stunning February updates from the International Institute for Strategic Studies and Oryx, an open-source intelligence analysis platform, estimated that Russia has lost about half of its operational tank fleet more than 1,500 tanks since the war began. The staggering losses reportedly hit Russia's store of T-72s and T-80s especially hard, with IISS suggesting the country's supply has been depleted by two-thirds, according to reports.

"The conventional wisdom is that the Russians aren't following their own doctrine," Cancian said. "They have not been using their tanks as part of a combined team."

A key part of effective tank warfare is using the vehicles in tandem with infantry, air support, artillery, and engineers a tactic known as combined arms, according to Cancian and Edmonds.

In one of the earliest displays of dysfunction, the Russians sent a convoy of unprotected tanks straight into an ambush in Bucha just weeks into the war. Then, earlier this year, the Russians repeated the very same mistake in Vuhledar, leading to the loss of more than 100 tanks, several of which were seen smoking and blazing in the Ukrainian snow.

Had the Russians practiced combined arms, they might have sent an infantry team ahead of the tanks to clear the terrain for incoming vehicles and scout possible attack points. But that type of cohesion takes training, and lots of it, Cancian and Edmonds said, a particular struggle among the Russians, who receive most of their training on the job.

"They clearly came into this with a lower level of tactical training than we thought," Edmonds said of the Russian military.

Cohesion among Russian soldiers is unlikely to improve as Russia sustains more than 220,000 casualties, a top UK defense official said this week, citing US intelligence. That number represents a stunning figure that has undoubtedly exacerbated already-existent personnel problems within the military.

Not only do the Russians have too few people to provide proper infantry support, the army seems to be running out of people to operate the remaining tanks. In Vuhledar earlier this year, Ukrainian troops said they captured a Russian medic who was forced to drive a tank, despite his medical background.

Russia's repeated mistakes have been costly, forcing the country to rely on older tanks they've since pulled from storage, including T-62s, T-55s, and T-54s, some of which date as far back as the 1940s.

These decade-old replacements are slower and lack the fire control of modern tanks, Edmonds said; they are generally less effective than their updated counterparts, though still have the capacity to be lethal.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has contributed to Russia's depleted supply, having captured several advanced T-72s ,T-80s, and even some T-90s from the enemy, though the country has also lost between 450-700 tanks itself, according to reports citing the IISS. The Ukrainian military seems to be better at operating their tanks on a tactical level, Edmonds said, citing the army's greater flexibility and initiative.

Following months of pleading from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine finally secured the promise of a long-desired tank haul from several Western countries earlier this year.

The US has pledged to send Ukraine 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks in the coming months; the UK is preparing 14 Challenger 2 tanks to send; Germany promised 14 Leopard 2 tanks; and several other European countries have also pledged to send tanks from their fleet of German-made Leopard 2s.

It's a hefty haul of Western tanks which boast better armor and fire control than the Russian T-72s, Cancian said. All three Western tank models are larger than most Russian tanks and are "quite survivable" thanks to their advanced armor, according to Edmonds.

"Those three tanks are all essentially equivalent," Cancian said, though he gave the slight edge to the American-made Abrams tanks, which have been upgraded more often than the Leopards and Challengers.

It's still unclear when the Western tanks will arrive or what role they will ultimately play in Ukraine's future offensives. Tank usage in the conflict has been minimal in recent weeks as the battle of Bakhmut an ongoing slog of attrition rages on.

"This stalemated frontline where we are right now, this is not a good environment for tanks," Cancian said. "Tanks need to break into the open."

The incoming vehicles could help shake up the current state of the war, according to Edmonds.

"Tanks were designed precisely for that," he told Insider. "To be brought in to make something staticvery fluid."

The much anticipated Ukrainian spring or summer offensive will likely be an attempt to break into the open and upset the Russians' lines, Edmonds said, a goal that would be aided by a fleet of tanks.

But the number of incoming Western tanks less than 150 is unlikely to change the tides of war. Cancian predicted that the tanks will be enough for the Ukrainians to execute "one good" attack as part of their counteroffensive.

"You just have a numbers problem. Even if they're really good, which they are, the numbers are just too small to fundamentally change tank warfare," he said.

The Russians, despite their flailing tank usage thus far, are believed to have thousands of old tanks still in storage to which they can return even, and especially, if they continue to sustain significant equipment losses.

"The Russians, like the Soviets, never threw anything away," Cancian said.

But the promise of incoming Western tanks sets the stage for possible additional equipment assistance to Ukraine in the future, Edmonds said.

"The longer this war goes on, the more effective this type of support will be," he said.

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Russia's tank force is better than Ukraine's, but mistakes tip scales - Business Insider

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukraines government on Sunday called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to counter the Kremlins nuclear blackmail after Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed plans to station tactical atomic weapons in Belarus.

One Ukrainian official said Russia took Belarus as a nuclear hostage.

Further heightening tensions, an explosion deep inside Russia wounded three people Sunday. Russian authorities blamed a Ukrainian drone for the blast, which damaged residential buildings in a town just 175 kilometers (110 miles) south of Moscow.

Russia has said the plan to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus comes in response to the Wests increasing military support for Ukraine. Putin announced the plan in a TV interview that aired Saturday, saying it was triggered by a U.K. decision this past week to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium.

Putin argued that by deploying its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russia was following the lead of the United States. He noted that Washington has nuclear weapons based in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.

We are doing what they have been doing for decades, stationing them in certain allied countries, preparing the launch platforms and training their crews, he said.

Ukraines Foreign Ministry condemned the move in a statement Sunday and demanded an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

Ukraine expects effective action to counter the Kremlins nuclear blackmail by the U.K., China, the U.S. and France, the statement read, saying these countries have a special responsibility regarding nuclear aggression.

The world must be united against someone who endangers the future of human civilization, the statement said.

Ukraine has not commented on Sundays explosion inside Russia. It left a crater about 15 meters (50 feet) in diameter and five meters deep (16 feet), according to media reports.

Russian state-run news agency Tass reported authorities identified the drone as a Ukrainian Tu-141. The Soviet-era drone was reintroduced in Ukraine in 2014, and has a range of about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).

The explosion took place in the town of Kireyevsk in the Tula region, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) from the border with Ukraine. Russias Defense Ministry said the drone crashed after an electronic jamming system disabled its navigation.

Similar drone attacks have been common during the war, although Ukraine hardly ever acknowledges responsibility. On Monday, Russia said Ukrainian drones attacked civilian facilities in the town of Dzhankoi in Russia-annexed Crimea. Ukraines military said several Russian cruise missiles were destroyed, but did not specifically claim responsibility.

In December, the Russian military reported several Ukrainian drone attacks on long-range bomber bases deep inside Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry said the drones were shot down, but acknowledged that their debris damaged some aircraft and killed several servicemen.

Also, Russian authorities have reported attacks by small drones in the Bryansk and Belgorod regions on the border with Ukraine.

On Saturday, Putin argued that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has long asked to have nuclear weapons in his country again to counter NATO. Belarus shares borders with three NATO members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and Russia used Belarusian territory as a staging ground to send troops into neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Both Lukashenkos support of the war and Putins plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus has been denounced by the Belarusian opposition.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraines National Security and Defense Council, tweeted Sunday that Putins announcement was a step towards internal destabilization of Belarus that maximized the level of negative perception and public rejection of Russia and Putin in Belarusian society. The Kremlin, Danilov added, took Belarus as a nuclear hostage.

Tactical nuclear weapons are intended for use on the battlefield and have a short range and a low yield compared with much more powerful nuclear warheads fitted to long-range missiles. Russia plans to maintain control over the ones it sends to Belarus, and construction of storage facilities for them will be completed by July 1, Putin said.

Russia has stored its tactical nuclear weapons at dedicated depots on its territory, and moving part of the arsenal to a storage facility in Belarus would up the ante in the Ukrainian conflict by placing them closer to Russian aircraft and missiles already stationed there.

The U.S. said it would monitor the implications of Putins announcement. So far, Washington hasnt seen any indications Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said.

In Germany, the foreign ministry called it a further attempt at nuclear intimidation, German news agency dpa reported late Saturday. The ministry went on to say that the comparison drawn by President Putin to NATOs nuclear participation is misleading and cannot be used to justify the step announced by Russia.

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Kirsten Grieshaber contributed to this report from Berlin.

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Ukraine demands emergency UN meeting over Putin nuclear plan - The Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Attention. Air raid alert, the voice says with a Jedi knights gravitas. Proceed to the nearest shelter.

Its a surreal moment in an already surreal war: the grave but calming baritone of actor Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker of Star Wars, urging people to take cover whenever Russia unleashes another aerial bombardment on Ukraine.

The intrusion of Hollywood science-fiction fantasy into the grim daily realities of war in Ukraine is a consequence of Hamills decision to lend his famous voice to Air Alert a downloadable app linked to Ukraines air defense system. When air raid sirens start howling, the app also warns Ukrainians that Russian missiles, bombs and deadly exploding drones may be incoming.

Dont be careless, Hamills voice advises. Your overconfidence is your weakness.

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In an audio excerpt, actor Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker of Star Wars, urges Ukrainians to take cover whenever Russia unleashes another aerial bombardment

The actor says hes admired from afar, in California how Ukraine has shown such resilience ... under such terrible circumstances. Its fight against the Russian invasion, now in its second year, reminds him of the Star Wars saga, he says of plucky rebels battling and ultimately defeating a vast, murderous empire. Voicing over the English-language version of the air-raid app and giving it his Star Wars touch was his way of helping out.

A fairy tale about good versus evil is resonant with whats going on in Ukraine, Hamill said in an interview with The Associated Press. The Ukrainian people rallying to the cause and responding so heroically ... Its impossible not to be inspired by how theyve weathered this storm.

When the dangers from the skies pass, Hamill announces via the app that the air alert is over. He then signs off with an uplifting: May the Force be with you.

Hamill is also raising funds to buy reconnaissance drones for Ukrainian forces on the front lines. He autographed Star Wars-themed posters that are being raffled off.

Here I sit in the comfort of my own home when in Ukraine there are power outages and food shortages and people are really suffering, he said. It motivates me to do as much as I can.

Although the app also has a Ukrainian-language setting, voiced by a woman, some Ukrainians prefer to have Hamill breaking the bad news that yet another Russian bombardment might be imminent.

On the worst days, sirens and the app sound every few hours, day and night. Some turn out to be false alarms. But many others are real and often deadly.

Bohdan Zvonyk, a 24-year-old app user who lives in the repeatedly struck western city of Lviv, says he chose Hamills voiceover rather than the Ukrainian setting because he is trying to improve his English. Hes a Star Wars fan, too.

Besides, he said, we could use a little bit of the power that Hamill wishes us.

After one alert, Zvonyk was riding a trolley bus when Hamills voice rang out from his phone. He said the man in front turned to me and said, smiling: Oh, those damn Sith, to describe Russian forces. The Sith are the malevolent enemies of the do-gooding Jedi.

Olena Yeremina, a 38-year-old business manager in the capital, Kyiv, said Hamills May the Force be with you signoff at first made her laugh. Now its enduring humor gives her strength.

Its a very cool phrase for this situation, she said. I wouldnt say that I feel like a Ukrainian Jedi, but sometimes this phrase reminds me to straighten my shoulders and keep working.

Sometimes it can be wise to shut Hamill off. Yeremina forgot to do that on a trip outside Ukraine to Berlin and paid for the error when the alarm started shrieking at 6 a.m. and, again, when she rode the subway in the German capital. She wasnt alone. Another person in the subway car also had the app and it erupted, too. The two of them first cursed, but then it made both me and that person smile, Yeremina recalled.

Ajax Systems, a Ukrainian security systems manufacturer that co-developed the app, hopes Hamills star power will encourage people outside Ukraine to download it so they get a taste of the angst heaped on Ukrainians by nerve-shredding alarms and airborne death and destruction.

With Marks approach, it wont be so terrifying, said Valentine Hrytsenko, the chief marketing officer at Ajax. But they will understand somehow the context.

In the invasions first year, air-raid alarms sounded more than 19,000 times across the country, so of course people are getting tired, he said. The app has been downloaded more than 14 million times. Hrytsenko is among those who use its English-language setting to hear Hamills voice.

For Star Wars fans, it sounds really fantastic, he said. Its kind of a Ukrainian mentality to find some humor even in the bad situation or to try to be positive.

Hamill is pleased that the sci-fi saga is again transporting people, even if just temporarily, to its galaxy far, far away.

It does inspire people, he said. Everyone flashes back to being 6 years old again. And if the movie can help people get through hard times, so much the better.

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Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine and https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine-a-year-of-war

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Mark Hamill lends 'Star Wars' voice to Ukrainian air-raid app - The Associated Press

A single father,who was separated from his daughter and sentenced on Tuesday to two years in prison over "discrediting" the Russian army, has fled house arrest, officials said.

Alexei Moskalyov, 54, first came to the authorities' attention last year after his daughter Maria drew a picture at school showing missiles next to a Russian flag heading towards a woman and child standing by a Ukrainian flag.

Subsequently a criminal case was opened against him over alleged comments criticising Russia's assault on Ukraine.

On Tuesday, a court in the town of Yefremov south of Moscow handed Moskalyov a two-year jail sentence over comments on social media criticising Moscow's assault on Ukraine.

But in a dramatic turn of events, court officials said Moskalyov had fled house arrest.

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Moskalyov has been separated from his 13-year-old daughter as punishment for his criticism of Kremlin policies, a first in Russia, experts say.

"The verdict was read out in the absence of the defendant, because he disappeared and did not appear at the hearing," Elena Mikhailovskaya, a spokeswoman for the Yefremov district court, told AFP.

Moskalyov's lawyer Vladimir Biliyenko said he was in a "state of shock".

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"His disappearance is a total surprise for me. This has happened for the first time in my career," he told AFP.

He said that Moskalyov's daughter Maria could be sent to an orphanage "within a month".

The Moskalyovs' case has garnered national attention and led to an online petition calling for the girl to be re-united with her father.

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The pair hail from Yefremov, a small town of around 37,000 people some 300 kilometres (180 miles) south of Moscow.

The case against Moskalyovs was opened after Maria's headmistress contacted the police about her picture with the flags and the missiles.

Police said an online search uncovered comments criticising Moscow's action in Ukraine on the social media profiles of the girl's father.

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In early March, authorities placed Maria in a "rehabilitation centre" for minors, whileMoskalyov was put under house arrest.

On Monday, prosecutors demanded a two-yearprison term for the father.

Since President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine over a year ago public criticism of Moscow's offensive in the pro-Western country has been outlawed.

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During the height of Stalin-era purges in the late 1930s thousands of children were taken away from their parents.

In modern Russia, the first recorded attempts to strip activists of parental rights were in Moscow in 2019. Prosecutors' attempts to punish two families for taking their children to political protests were not successful at the time, however.

Even Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner paramilitary force spearheading Russia's assault in eastern Ukraine, has voiced support for Maria and criticised the local authorities.

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Russian Father Jailed Over Ukraine Flees House Arrest - Barron's