ANATOMY OF AN AMBUSH

We have always read about the deadly ambushes faced by both our own paramilitary and armed forces as well as that of ones that have happened elsewhere in the world. But one such ambush that happened in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war caught my eye. It may be said that this is one of the best war time footage on small-team tactics to come out in recent times. There have been numerous reports on how the Russian armed forces performed absolutely poorly, and yes I give some credit to that also since they lost a freaking warship, Moskva - a bloody cruiser nonetheless, an equivalent to a large destroyer but they also had their fair share of victories, Battle for Hostomel airport - a daring airborne raid behind enemy lines which led them to seize and hold the airport for a very extended period of time much like the famous Russian VDV seizure of Pristina airport during Kosovo war. Now what simpletons don't understand is, in a war losses are inevitable, they are substantial to the invaders since the defenders are at an advantage and exponential when conducting expeditionary attacks.

Now before you jump to any conclusions, I sympathize with the Ukrainian civilians but I empathize with the Russian nation. How ? - Well I certainly don't want to bear the brunt of a war, but then again imagine how we would feel if the Chinese troops positioned themselves along the Wagah border jointly with Pak troops (very similar to American and Ukrainian troops jointly operating along Russian border, isn't it).

The Russian troops executed a very close range ambush on the unsuspecting Ukrainian troops to almost perfection, but not to perfection, I will get to it later on. The Russian picked a good spot which gave them just enough camouflage to remain hidden for the required time, had an overhead drone running reconnaissance on enemy movement, had their actions and roles assigned to specific soldiers preplanned, split into dispersed pattern as soon as the attack started to prevent enemy from concentrating fire and to prevent causalities from possible enemy grenades and gained fire superiority as soon as the enemy came into contact. They also quickly ended the ambush, established a hasty defensive perimeter to respond to probable enemy reinforcements and retained the element of shock & awe by overpowering the surviving enemy soldier and evacuating him for possible battlefield interrogation.

The Ukrainians walked into the ambush because of complacency and false sense of security as they clearly didn't expect an attack, maybe because the area was considered safe from hostile activity. Within seconds of the start of the ambush, all soldiers were mowed down by indiscriminate automatic fire except one who was quick enough to recognize the situation that his unit was in. The lone soldier quickly dropped onto the ground, switched to automatic fire (a little bit difficult in AK series of rifles since it is intentionally made to go into semiautomatic fire in high stress situations to conserve ammunition), correctly recognized enemy positions, returned fire, changed his position frequently to avoid being pinned down, moved to a position that offered cover before being overwhelmed. The reaction from this lone soldier to a sudden and unexpected attack is nothing short of admirable.

Now coming back to why the ambush was not perfect -

1. The Russians picked a spot which though offered camouflage didn't offer much hard cover in case the enemy survived the initial contact and retaliated.

2. The Russians got jumpy and initiated the ambush before the whole enemy squad was caught out in the open, leading to one enemy soldier responding effectively to their ambush

3. In the midst of pushing up and following through with the ambush, one of the Russian soldier runs out of ammunition and is forced to reload (another hiccup in AK series rifles is that it doesn't have slide stop/lock, thereby increasing reloading time) in the open without cover making him an easy prey. Also he doesn't communicate his situation to the rest of the squad, putting them in danger as they believe everyone is at a 100% percent and advancing. (He can be heard cussing about it in the background)

To sum it up the Russians did more things correctly than wrongly and thereby ensured a victory. Also the saying - "No plan survives first contact with the enemy" is depicted very accurately in this video clipping.