Russia's World War II tactics likely to make its troops vulnerable in Ukraine, says UK MoD

The UK Ministry of Defence on Friday stated that Russia is using 2nd World War tactics, which is likely to leave Russian troops in a vulnerable position in Ukraine. According to reports from Newsweek, Russia is building up trenches since the withdrawal of its troops from Kherson. Most of these trenches are being built by the town of Svatove in the Luhansk region. The UK ministry of defence said the entrenchment plan that Russia is following in the Moscow-Kyiv war has not been used by western armies in decades. 

"The construction of major defensive lines is further illustration of Russia's reversion to positional warfare that has been largely abandoned by most modern Western militaries in recent decades," the UK ministry of defence said.

The ministry's assessment is that the tactics, which are being used by Russian troops in the war, will render them vulnerable to precision strikes from Ukraine. The battle in Bakhmut, which is being observed closely, has descended into trench warfare as well, highlighting how the nature of the war has changed. 

What is trench warfare and why did western nations abandon it?

Trench warfare is a type of warfare that was primarily used during World War I and II. It involved the use of trenches as defensive positions. It was characterized by the use of defensive fortifications, such as barbed wire and machine gun emplacements, and the use of artillery to attack enemy positions. Trench warfare was a brutal and costly form of warfare that resulted in high casualties on both sides.

After the 2nd World War, modern western militaries wanted to minimise the costs and casualties associated with warfare. In a book on the history of warfare, military historian John Keegan writes that "trench warfare was a particularly costly form of warfare in terms of human lives and material resources", which is the reason western nations moved away from it. Another reason is the impact of technological advances on warfare. In a paper published in the journal 'Contemporary Security Policy', military expert Thomas Mahnken argued that "the development of new weapons systems and tactics made trench warfare obsolete". He cites the use of precision-guided munitions and unmanned aerial vehicles as examples of technologies that have made it possible to attack enemy positions from a distance, obviating the need for soldiers to be in close proximity to the enemy in trenches.