16 March 2025

Russia Can’t Win A War Of Maneuver In Ukraine—But It Doesn’t Have To

Stavros Atlamazoglou

In a recent intelligence assessment, the British Ministry of Defence referred to the Russian military’s practice of repeated “dismounted infantry attacks.” These attacks often resemble the tactics used in the First World War—namely, mass infantry assaults against fortified defensive lines.

This fixation on dismounted infantry attacks highlights another problem plaguing the Russian military: an inability to properly conduct combined arms operations in the ongoing war.

The Russian Army’s Lack of Sophistication

Combined arms warfare is the fusion of different types of capabilities and forces to achieve superiority over an adversary. The most effective combined arms operations bring together different combat elements—such as artillery, air power, infantry, and armored forces—to complement one another and enhance their combined effect on the battlefield. Under normal circumstances, an infantry charge against a fortified position will likely fail. But such an attack is more likely to succeed if it is accompanied by tactical air support and accurate artillery fire.

Combined arms warfare really shines when a military force has room to maneuver. The German Wehrmacht was the first to show what this type of warfare could do in the modern era when it blitzed its way through France and the Low Countries in May 1940.

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