this post was submitted on 31 May 2026
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Something that aggravates me is that the international media widely treats this kind of russian adaption as a crucial part of their strategy and an indicator of the strengths of russian culture and military doctrine....
...but it isn't, it is an indicator that the structures of the russian military are existentially unhelpful towards protecting their soldiers and preparing them for battle so that the frontline becomes a series of individuals trying desperately to protect themselves. There is no strategy in the russian military, that is why you see primarily individual solutions and mitigations towards drones and other changes on the battlefield from russian soldiers not large scale doctrine and equipment shifts.
This is a desperate, tragic act not some kind of cool russian improvised ingenuinity.
The myth of smekalka still lives strong. But there's adaptation due to the situation on the battlefield that's done by every miliatry, and there's adaptation due to bottom-tier logistics, shortages, and desperation. These are indeed examples of the latter case.
Truth be told, almost every time the Russian culture has done something to "adapt" it's been out of desperation, and re-framed later to cope with the fact they're not strong enough a country to solve it the right way. On the other hand, you can actually see very good examples of actual adaptation and cleverness displayed by Ukrainians.
Of course they have a strategy: throw more men at it
Wild how little their tactics have changed in 80 years
No matter how much times change, it will always become impossible to breathe at some point if the enemy continues to pile his dead young men onto you.
However, there's only so many times the enemy in this case is actually able to use the tactic. Russia has absolutely no way to replace losses on the battlefield with their birth rates, which are consistently among the lowest in the whole world. Much of the manpower in soviet times was from the former bloc that's now either at war with Russia, joined NATO, or a reluctant vassal like is the case with Belarus. Ukraine is also next to the only country in Europe where piling more bodies to the front works even to this extent, as there are fewer natural defenses compared to the likes of Poland and Finland.
Was there a conflict between NATO and Russia, it wouldn't be long before dying at the front would be the new Russian pension scheme. A dying empire that has been quickly withering even before a war, for three decades, simply doesn't have a route to a recovery.
Not if you have sufficient 155mm artillery, then the enemy can pile all the bodies they want at the foot of your defenses and they will barely ever make any progress.... hence one of the reasons for the historically bad advance rate of the russian army in this war.