In a secret document, the German military criticizes the way the Ukrainians are conducting an offensive against the Russian occupiers, saying that they are not using methods of warfare learned in the West, writes Bild, which reports that it has obtained a copy of the document.

Among the main shortcomings of the Ukrainian armed forces, the officers of the Bundeswehr name the separation of the combat units of Kyiv, stating that because of this “there is no visible joint fight”.

The situation not only increases the danger of “friendly fire” (that is, the risk of mistakenly attacking one’s own troops), but also causes deficiencies in the availability of “maneuver units in the direction of the main strike to initiate an offensive or gain a firepower advantage.”

In other words, the fact that Ukraine divides the Western-trained brigades into groups of 10-30 soldiers, isolated from the rest of the troops, nullifies the effect of Western training, better weapons and a larger number of available soldiers, explain the journalists of “Ukrainian Pravda”, who adopted the information provided by Bild.

The German military is not happy with the training of the Ukrainians

In addition, German officers also criticize the training of experienced Ukrainian soldiers, saying that they do not want to learn the principles of Western training or do not participate in exercises at all.

The document also states that the Ukrainian command structure “sometimes demonstrates significant deficiencies in the level of conducting and applying command processes, which leads to partially incorrect and dangerous decisions.”

The German military concluded that these two factors, the division of Western-trained soldiers into disparate units and the lack of proper training of Ukrainian officers, could explain the slow progress of the Ukrainian offensive that began last month.

Several Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, have acknowledged in recent weeks that the offensive is not progressing at the pace expected by the leadership in Kyiv, but have blamed the situation on numerous minefields and defense lines built by Russian forces in eastern and southern Ukraine.

What Ukraine says about the slowness of its offensive

The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksiy Reznikov, spoke about the situation literally a day ago, who also referred to the lack of air cover for the troops that are sent to attack.

“This is a matter of air defense. The fact is also that we have a very long battle line. And there are many enemies against us. So it’s a war, it’s not a computer game,” Reznikov said in an interview with CNN over the weekend in Kyiv.

He also said that “our generals, our commanders see the real situation on the battlefield. And again, I repeat, the main value for us is the life of our soldiers.”

The minister said that the Russians have “serious security zones with mines” and that the front is “very difficult to break through”. “We have to use our soldiers, engineers, sappers very slowly and preparing corridors for a real offensive movement,” Reznikov said, adding that this activity in different places confuses the Russians about the main direction of Ukraine’s movement.​​

US Chief of Staff General Mark Milley said last week that Ukraine’s Western partners had prepared 17 Ukrainian combat brigades and more than 63,000 troops for the offensive, again noting that most of them had not yet been deployed.

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