Ukrainian leaders acknowledged that the offensive had only limited success. Photo: Anadolu agency. According to a confidential document obtained by the Bild newspaper, the Bundeswehr is frustrated that Kiev has not learned all the lessons learned from training its Western allies, according to a confidential document obtained by the Bild newspaper.
Ukrainian leaders have acknowledged that only limited success has been achieved in the offensive, with a dense network of Russian mines threatening any breakthrough.
Vladimir Zelensky said last week that the offensive would soon «gain momentum» amid a growing alarm in Western capitals.
About 100 square miles and nine villages have been recaptured since the offensive began almost two months ago.
The German Ministry of Defense blames the slowdown on the fact that the Ukrainian armed forces were too dispersed across the entire 1000-kilometer front line, using small groups to attack from 10 to 30 soldiers.
According to intelligence estimates, this sacrifices the advantage of having a large number of Western-trained and armed soldiers in reserve.
Ukraine's army commander, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny, said last month that Western pressure to attack faster «pissed me off.»
Many in the Kiev army feel pressured to sacrifice more people without enough weapons to protect them, such as F-16 jets and Atacms long-range missiles.
A secret German dossier claims that «Ukraine's own military units are sometimes so little separated that, although each military unit does something, the joint combat leadership cannot be recognized,» says Bild. This increases the risk of friendly fire, the report says.
The German Defense Ministry says Ukrainian troops are too dispersed across the front line. Photo: FINBARR O'REILLY/NYTNS/Redux/eyvine >The unit's small size means it does not have enough Western-trained soldiers grouped together to apply tactics they have learned in Western military academies, the report says.
It also criticizes the Ukrainian army for not properly using Western training in its officer corps structure, promoting those with combat experience rather than those with training and leadership ability.
“Combat experience does not mean that a soldier is a good commander in combat,” the Bundeswehr said in an assessment. “In many cases, it has been found that soldiers with no recent combat or military experience achieve greater success in training due to the support of military training they receive than supposedly experienced and trained soldiers.”
The report argued that the tactics of Ukrainian military and officers who did not receive Western training undermined the “high level of understanding and great success in training” demonstrated by Ukrainian cadets during their four weeks of training in Germany.
The report notes that German-trained troops understood «operational principles of firing and movement», but upon returning to Ukraine, they were commanded by officers who used different military tactics and demonstrated «sometimes significant shortcomings in leadership and application of managerial processes at the appropriate level, sometimes leading to wrong and dangerous decisions.»
The report criticizes the Ukrainian army for not properly incorporating Western training into its officer corps structure. Photo: Anadolu agency.
Prominent Ukrainian analysts, including Michael Kofman and Rob Lee, say that one of the obstacles to Kiev's progress is the inability to introduce a «combined arms war» in which infantry, armored vehicles and artillery act as a single unit.
This leaked German report was criticized by Serhiy Sumlenny, founder of the Berlin-based think tank European Resilience Initiative Center, who called it «typical German arrogance.»
Mr Sumlenny told The Telegraph: «The Bundeswehr believes German-trained soldiers are so much the best that they can be better officers than seasoned Ukrainian soldiers. A German certificate does not make you a better soldier.»
He also dismissed criticism of the group's size, which he blames on the lack of artillery and air support, on which Western-backed tactics depend, on which support for the Bundeswehr depends.
«Of course, Ukraine uses smaller groups. They do not have enough strength to launch a large-scale offensive, and therefore they are trying to find weak spots in the Russian defensive lines. They don't have enough artillery and air support to push the offensive.»
If the Ukrainians had moved forward as Berlin wanted, they would probably have lost all 50 German-supplied Leopard tanks, and then the Bundeswehr would write a report condemning it, Mr Sumlenny said.
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