How did Russia lose an ‘entire battalion’ crossing a Ukrainian bridge? | Ben Hodges

the russians i believe have started this newest defensive too early um there was probably pressure to get things going again but they never had time to to reconstitute all their units and and try to and to train and prepare for this next phase and so they are just relying on mass and trying to force people through uh in these attacks and relying on artillery to to do to take the place of good operational art and tactical leadership and so to to kill that many soldiers even if that number is um inflated twice if it's only if the real number is half of what's reported um that would be because they got caught all bunched up and it's time to invite you into our daily briefing room where one of our leading tactical and strategic minds with years of experience as a general officer at the highest level of military command shares their insights into the current state of the war in ukraine today i'm delighted to be joined by lieutenant general ben hodges former commander of u.s army forces in europe and chair in strategic studies at the center for european policy analysis uh ben welcome to the show thank you very much now ben let's begin with um a story which has broken in the last few hours the russian army has lost almost an entire battalion in donets 50 vehicles and possibly a thousand troops how significant is this and how on earth did this happen i mean how do you lose an entire battalion crossing one river well of course it's uh early early hours reporting but what appears to have happened is that ukrainians have done exactly what you should do in the defense you you identify places where russian forces might have to cross a river in an operation so you can do this through intercepted communications but also just through doing good analysis of where the likely places are and the russians have not demonstrated very good operational security uh or uh concealing their movements and so the ukrainians not only did they figure out where the russians might be attempting a river crossing they prepared for it by having artillery ready to shoot at that spot because we know if you're doing a river crossing you have to suppress the other side you try to obscure observation and then you begin trying to get across the river it's a very dangerous operation in ideal circumstances it looks like the ukrainians caught them so a combination of skill intuition uh and real tactical competence and as you see there ben it really points to a real sense of strategic prowess uh with the ukrainians compared to a real weakness with the the russian army well what you've got uh again the the russians i believe have started this newest defensive too early um there was probably pressure to get things going again but they never had time to to reconstitute all their units and and try to and to train and prepare for this next phase and so they are just relying on mass and trying to force people through uh in these attacks and relying on artillery to to do to take the place of good operational art and tactical leadership and so to to kill that many soldiers even if that number is um inflated twice if it's only if the real number is half of what's reported um that would be because they got caught all bunched up and this this is this is what untrained undisciplined units do if you've got good sergeants out there you're forcing the the soldiers to stay dispersed to stay concealed until it's time to move forward and it sounds to me that they got caught all bunched up and again uh the ukrainians for the last eight years i mean they have been getting better and better and better uh british american canadian trainers working with them they've they've developed a what we would consider a more western style of command and control decentralized command leaders at the lower levels making decisions have an authority the opposite of the russian side and this then this is where it pays off but i would also say we're starting to see now the equipment that the west has been providing is finally making it into the hands of the russian of the uh ukrainians they have no trouble learning how to use new equipment they're very tech savvy and we need to be ported on now pushing everything that they need and ben i just want to move on to another really big story which is dominating the the news cycle you were leader of u.s forces in europe and we have the news that finland and potentially sweden are very keen to join nato and that nato is very keen to have them how will this change the complexion of the alliance what does this mean for nato uh instant improvement um these are two countries uh obviously very strong and clear statements today from the president and prime minister of finland um i hope that we'll hear similar statements coming from the swedish government in the next few days i'm in stockholm right now as a matter of fact at the swedish defense university for a forum i was in finland three weeks ago for a nato training course there these are two strong democracies these are two strong resilient societies they both bring quality militaries not not large but quality modernizing finland is purchasing i think 64 f-35s they have a mobilization system that can put about 200 000 troops in the field in very short notice which you would expect from a country that lives next door to russia they're serious about their business and um obviously the the geometry of the whole eastern flank of nato now changes dramatically in our favor um security in the baltic sea much more uh much improved and and so there's so many good things coming out of this i can't wait to start seeing finnish and swedish officers working in nato headquarters and regular staff positions they're going to be security providers not consumers and this is this just adds to the list of huge strategic blunders by vladimir putin um this only happened because of him and i mean many people are very very pleased um about this news obviously we can hear that you are but of course many are very upset particularly in russia russia is threatening some kind of retaliation they have not specified what form that might take what would you envisage russian retaliation looking like ben well again the the people who are serious uh and and thinking people in russia and of course there are lots of them they they have only them the the kremlin to blame i mean this would have never happened uh if but for uh russia's uh aggression against his neighbors and and even uh so finns and swedes can look at this and realize if he's willing to butcher his fellow slavs then nobody else on the periphery is actually going to be safe and so um i think this was a practical decision by eminently practical people on the fence uh and i hope the swedes will follow suit what what will putin do of course they've threatened the use of nuclear weapons for years and years and years i always take those serious but i see it as very unlikely the last thing he wants is a conflict with nato uh and i thought it was important that the british prime minister went to both countries and said that you can count on uk during this transition period the best response i saw though was a few weeks ago when the when the kremlin decided to roll out some nuclear uh missiles on tractor trailers and drove them close to the finnish border as if to say hey don't forget we can do this the finished response were ten farmers on tractors that drove straight to the russian border and said well we can do this and i just thought what a classic response and um this this is how you stand up to bullies it's a great story listen ben it's been really great speaking with you thanks very much for your time this afternoon thank you for the privilege that's lieutenant general ben hodges former commander of u.s army forces in europe and chair in strategic studies at the center for european policy analysis [Music] you

Channel: Times Radio

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Id: pI3aYCK_rfE

Length: 8min 55sec (535 seconds)

Published: Thu May 12 2022