Sunday we talked about the current events in Ukraine. The first modern war covered in modern states from the perspective of Social Media sharing technology. It is wild, 2001 and 2003 were the most communicative and current events conflicts to prior to this but were before the Social Media communications revolution.
The first social era media war, the first near peer war we’ve seen since the Falkland Islands campaign. There is more raw and fragmented information with ability to share it at speeds never previously imagined.
It’s been confirmed at this point, for instance, that the ‘Snake Island 13’ who had been alleged to have been killed in the shelling of Snake Island by Russian Naval forces were instead captured. Which tactically makes way more sense. That doesn’t change the attitude the troops displayed to the Russians, but it does change how the legend proceeds. They are POWs, not martyrs. But Ukrainian president hailed them as martyrs and now that will have to be walked back. Unless information changes again. Which it could.
The Ghost of Kyiv for instance. Nobody knows if that is or was remotely real, I heard yesterday they were shot down. I don’t know if it was ever real to begin with. But it is a legend worth the name. A confirmed ACE in a day against the allegedly unstoppable weight of Russia.
The modern result
This campaign is far from concluded, but the image of uncheckable Russian power project has been severely damaged as the tiny by comparison Ukraine hold them off day after day. The Russian forces needed a quick a decisive strike and leave where they came off as looking like the simply hit Ukraine in the face, told them how it was going to go, and then settled whatever borders were their end goal. Instead Russia keeps getting hit by a far more tenacious scrapper, instead of going down with one solid blow Ukraine keeps hitting back hard and Russia can’t get its arms up well enough to not get hit.
The ground forces are literally running out of gas and if exchange rates and casualty numbers are close to accurate the Ukrainians are making the Russian ground forces pay for their stay. A real WarBnB.
After Action
The AAR’s on this one are going to make for very long analysis and will give us our latest and best look into truly modern warfare. Not high tech vs. low tech counter insurgency which is what the Western Powers have been most spun up on and not one tinpot vs. another like several of the local fights ongoing in the Middle East. Modern warfare got very rough, very destructive live test in Ukraine and modern militaries need to be paying close attention.
