An American general identified Ukraine’s key advantage in the war against Russia
On August 28, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling cited Ukraine’s ability to quickly adapt to changes on the battlefield as one of its key advantages in the war against Russia. According to him, Ukraine is gradually transitioning from the role of an aid recipient to that of a partner capable of offering its allies its own technologies and combat experience.
Hertling notes that the Ukrainian army is increasingly less focused on competing with Russia in terms of the number of troops, artillery, or armored vehicles. Instead, Ukraine is leveraging its technological advantage, speed of decision-making, and experience gained directly on the battlefield.
In his assessment, the main shift lies in the transition from a symmetrical confrontation to strikes against vulnerable elements of the Russian military system. These include logistics, industrial facilities, energy infrastructure, communications systems, navigation, and weapons production.
Hertling emphasizes that Ukraine was forced to adopt this approach due to obvious geographical and resource disparities. Russia has a significantly larger territory and deep reserves, so it is not in Kyiv’s interest to wage war exclusively by the rules where quantity determines superiority.
According to the American general, the distinctive feature of the Ukrainian model lies in its speed of adaptation. Drones, electronic warfare systems, sensors, software, and command-and-control systems are constantly evolving in response to intelligence coming from the front lines.
Hertling points out that modern warfare forces Ukrainian military personnel and developers to act much faster than was typical in traditional defense cycles. Technology can be developed, tested in actual combat, its weaknesses identified, refined, and returned to the front within a short period of time.
“All the ammunition, equipment, and shiny helmets in the world cannot compare to the ability to learn and adapt faster than the enemy,” writes Hertling.
He considers this very ability to be one of the key factors allowing Ukraine to exert pressure on Russia not only directly on the front lines but also on its rear infrastructure and military-industrial facilities.
The author also cites assessments by the Institute for the Study of War, according to which the pace of Russian advances has slowed, while Ukrainian long-range strikes on logistics hubs, industrial facilities, and command centers have become an important part of Kyiv’s strategy. At the same time, these assessments represent the ISW’s position and do not constitute independent confirmation of all of Hertling’s conclusions.
One of the most striking examples of this new format of cooperation was the agreement between Ukraine and the United Kingdom, signed on August 24.
The British government announced that the defense company MBDA had received authorization to disclose to Ukraine classified information regarding British components of the SCALP long-range missile. This is intended to help establish production lines in Ukraine for assembling the missiles.
Source: Mark Hertling
Earlier, Russia launched a ballistic missile strike on a facility in Kryvyi Rih.
As a reminder, Russia attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles.
Prior to that, Russia had attacked warehouses and energy infrastructure in the Odesa region.
