Russia-Ukraine War -5 Takeaways for India

Context: Russia-Ukraine war completed one year on February 24, 2023.

About the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

• Russian troops invaded Ukraine from the north, east and south of the country.
  • It targeted the capital Kyiv, Kharkiv in the northeast, Donbas in the east, and the southeast of the country, along a swathe of territory reaching across to Crimea.
• The 2014 Crisis: Conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russia-supported rebels in Crimea, DPR and LPR, claimed nearly 14,000 lives.
  • Russia then annexed Crimea and a series of sanctions followed, handing blows to the Russian economy.
• Objective of Invasion: An operation to demilitarise Ukraine.
  • To prevent the US-led NATO from gaining a foothold in Ukraine.
• According to United Nations Human Rights Commission, a total of 7,199 civilians lost their lives in Ukraine till February 13, 2023. The number of injured is close to 11,800.

Integrated Battle Groups (IBGs)

• IBGs are self-contained, agile, brigade-sized fighting units.
  • IBGs are to perform both offensive roles, involving cross-border operations, and defensive roles to withstand an enemy attack.
• The integrated units for the border will be all-encompassing, with artillery, armoured, combat engineers and signal units.
• They are to replace the current Cold Start Doctrine, which called for defensive corps to carry out shallow cross-border thrusts within 72 hours for limited objectives such as the capture of territory.

Five Major Tactical take-ways from the Conflict for India’s Military

• Self-sufficient in defence: India need to have a defence industrial ecosystem that will keep supplies going rather than be at the mercy of another country in case of a war.
  • India needs to have an ecosystem in place so that the flow of supplies is constant.
  • Servicing of damaged military equipment, for fast-tracking the repairs in the middle of war.
• Possibility of Long Wars: One cannot rule out the possibility of India getting involved in a war that stretches like Ukraine -Russia War.
  • Indian military currently has focused on short, intense war as can be seen from Army’s Cold Start doctrine and Integrated Battle Groups.
  • Any conflict on India’s northern or the eastern borders can be protracted, with the intensity changing from time to time.
• Importance of Conventional firepower: Russia-Ukraine war has shown that conventional firepower still matters.
  • India need to have the right mix of everything viz. cyber warfare, space war, conventional war etc.
  • Utility of Nuclear Weapon: Possession of a nuclear arsenal neither earns you the desired respect nor does it guarantee security beyond a point.
  • Well-Trained Infantry: There is a need for trained soldiers in good numbers to push in and occupy enemy territories once the big firepower does its operation.
• Drone Usage: Smart utilization of drones in the early stages of war by Ukraine to target Russian armoured columns and artillery positions.
  • While drones are cheap and good to hit at enemy positions, their effectiveness is questionable in a heavily challenged air space.
  • Drones can work when they are unchallenged. They are useful for surveillance and also for carrying out attacks close to the border.
• Unified and inter-linked fighting strategy: Early setback to the Russian onslaught was the lack of a combined arms formation. Each division was fighting their own battle without any actual coordination on the ground.
  • Morale of the troops got hit because of these early setbacks while that of the Ukrainians rose due to their ability to strike the powerful Russian military.
  • There is a need of unified approach to war which would entail using capabilities of all the three services in a dedicated manner.
  • The 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war was a success because of coordination between the three Services — Army, Navy, and Air Force.

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