Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Wesley Clark, emphasized the importance of Ukraine not solely depending on Western aid but also learning from historical military strategies to enhance their counteroffensive capabilities in an interview with NV on April 28.
“Ukraine needs to go through a process of training its armed forces to develop the ability to fight with combined forces in a more synchronized fashion to mount a truly effective counteroffensive,” Clark said, suggesting that attention be paid to past experience as American military aid alone is not enough to win the war.
“For example, one has to look at the airborne operations conducted by the United States during World War II and then apply those examples to modern technologies, where the range of weapons is greater, the visibility is greater, the tonnage of air weapons is greater, the area of the battlefield is greater, and so on. But historically, such operations still demonstrate the basics of planning and synchronizing combat capabilities. This includes the landing in Normandy in 1944 and the invasion of Okinawa in the Pacific in 1945.”
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have to provide the frontline units with regular rotations.
“Troops that have been fighting for many months need to be rotated and retrained, because training is lost in combat. This is important. You can’t imagine how much. Soldiers and units have to constantly retrain and re-engage mentally and emotionally,” Clark said.
“They go into combat, they come out, and they get new ideas, new concepts, new equipment. They clean their weapons, but they also work on themselves morally and psychologically for the next phase of the fight.”
On April 27, Institute for the Study of War (ISW) stated that Ukrainian Armed Forces were likely to stabilize front line in the coming months despite Russian mass assault storms and launch a limited counteroffensive in late 2024 or early 2025.
Ukraine’s new counteroffensive
If the situation on the battlefield is stabilized, Ukraine will be able to arm and train new brigades in the rear to launch a new counteroffensive this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier in an interview with The Washington Post.
Zelenskyy said later in an interview with German newspaper Bild that Ukraine has a plan for a counteroffensive, but that it needs weapons, including from the United States. He admitted that Russia has more manpower and weapons, but expressed optimism that Ukraine could gain an advantage due to the quality of its weapons.
The Ukrainian military currently has only enough artillery munitions for defensive actions, he added.
Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Pavliuk also spoke about plans for a counteroffensive after the situation at the front stabilizes.
On April 9, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine’s next counteroffensive against Russian invasion forces would be more successful than its previous attempt, as the previous one was “sabotaged from within.”
“For example, one has to look at the airborne operations conducted by the United States during World War II and then apply those examples to modern technologies, where the range of weapons is greater, the visibility is greater, the tonnage of air weapons is greater, the area of the battlefield is greater, and so on. But historically, such operations still demonstrate the basics of planning and synchronizing combat capabilities.”
I think this General has been asleep for two years. It was US interference on the battle field that caused these problems to begin with.
Here is an excerpt from the Wiki page on the Normandy landings. Please tell me what difference there is between what the allies did in 1944, and what Ukraine are doing now.
“To gain the air superiority needed to ensure a successful invasion, the Allies undertook a bombing campaign (codenamed Operation Pointblank) that targeted German aircraft production, fuel supplies, and airfields.”
It was the EU’s failure to fill the gap.
Yeah. Those 1 million shells have disappeared into thin air, if they ever existed.
Well, about 500,000 had been delivered. But there can’t be any good excuse from failing to meet a commitment that had been set rather low in the first place, indeed. ☹
Even though I don’t like quoting that NATO guy, he said to the effect of we must turn promises into real deliveries.
The gap that rather suddenly tore up when Rethuglicans blocked new deliveries. The EU was unprepared for this, sure, but you can’t easily double arms production in six months. Nato urgently needs to streamline its operations, becoming faster in response, but we shouldn’t expect miracles to happen. 🙁
Good point, Foccusser. I used to be a fan of General Clark, but the shallow reasoning and apparent lack of awareness of important issues he showed there disturbs me. Looks like he ain’t as sharp as he once was anymore and should have better stayed silent. Not his brightest hour, really. ☹
I like General Clark and think he would have been a fine President of the US (he ran in 2004), but I do think he shows a bit of Yankee arrogance in this interview. It’s simply ridiculous to believe that AFU leadership doesn’t know their business very well. Clark should have talked with General Zaluzhny, a very educated man, and he may have learned something from him. And Syrsky certainly is no ignorant regarding military history, neither. What the AFU needs is not trivial advice from the US, but the abundance of arms and supplies that made D-Day possible! 🤨
The only US General that has made any sense in this war, is Ben Hodges. The rest are just so full of themselves.
Well, the ignorants seem to have the majority, at least. And I’m really sad that Wesley Clark apparently joined the ranks of the low info loudmouths. He used to be better than that. ☹
If Ukraine had the 300,000 troops the allies had at Normandy, plus the airforce, then we would have a chance.
Also the navy and the landing ships, manoveuring under a dense screen of fighters! Imagine a big landing at Berdiqnsk! Like MacArthurs bold action in Korea, that could decide the war. Alas, the necessary conditions for this are missing and most probably will never exist, so this is mere daydreaming and not a helpful advice. General Syrsky can’t waste his time with wishful thinking now, his reality looks much more like Finland’s in WWII than the US one. 🤨
It’s so annoying when prominent supporters of Ukraine publicly voice trivial points, as if they’re prophets teaching civilization to people living in caves. Guys like Clark could easily travel to London and get like two hours of intense lecturing of the real issues from Ambassador Zaluzhnyi! Why don’t they, instead of embarassing themselves with irrelevant nonsense? 😠
He’s been out of the news for years, probably wants to make himself relevant again.
I’m afraid so. He’s 79 now, apparently past his prime. I don’t want to remember him a yet another fool among media punditry, so I do hope he shuts the eff up and goes fishing instead. ☹