Why the Lack of Training is Ukraine’s Achilles Heel

I believe one of the major contributing factors to the dramatic increase in Ukrainian casualties is the lack of trained personnel. In sharp contrast to the Russian approach, the Ukrainians are grabbing guys off the streets, shoving them into vans, hauling them to a collection point where they are issued essential military equipment and then sending them to the front. Ukraine is circumventing the normal process of conducting at least three-months of basic training, followed by an additional three to six-months of advanced individual training — e.g., learning how to operate an artillery piece, a drone or a tank. Once that training is complete, the new soldier is still green, inexperienced. Ukraine is not doing that for its new recruits.

Once a newbie arrives at the front — in an ideal world — he would be surrounded by grizzled veterans, seasoned non-commissioned officers (NCOs) who would show the new guy how to stay alive on the battlefield. But that is not happening for the Ukrainians. Most of their seasoned NCOs are dead or wounded and their places have been filled with inexperienced sergeants, who also have little formal training. While there are some exceptions, I am talking about the majority.

The Ukrainian soldiers now fighting who have had some formal training are also at a disadvantage because the training has not been uniform. Some have been trained in Poland, some in Romania, some in Germany and some in the United Kingdom. That is the problem. While all the countries are NATO members, there is no guarantee of standardized training. Each country has a tendency to do things their on way.

So, imagine what happens if a unit trained in the UK is hooked up with a unit trained in Poland. Each unit may have been trained differently to react to a situation, such as an ambush or a drone attack. If there is no uniformity, the chances of chaos escalate.

Russia, by contrast, is receiving a regular supply of new enlistees and sending them off to the eastern regions of Russia, where they can train at a secure base that is not going to be hit by an Iskander missile — that is what the Ukrainians face. And the Russian soldiers are getting a minimum of six months of training before being sent to units engaged in combat. And, unlike the Ukrainians, the new guys arriving at the front are under the command of seasoned veterans and have a chance to learn the ropes of fighting on the front before getting killed.

There is nothing Ukraine can do at this point to alter this dynamic. Minimally trained, poorly led troops will incur greater casualties. That is not a guess on my part. Turns out that the folks at the Institute for the Study of War just produced a short video confirming my analysis. Given their pro-Ukraine slant (to put it mildly), this is a stunning admission from the cheerleaders.

Larry C Johnson is a Managing Partner of BERG Associates, former CIA Officer and State Department Counter Terrorism official.