U.S. Veterans Start a 'Resistance Academy' in Ukraine. Will It Backfire?

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/american-veterans-resistance-academy-ukraine-1319830/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/nZdkL


Three days after the Russian invasion, Hannibal told me he was setting up a group of international military volunteers to fight for Ukraine.

Hannibal — who asked that Rolling Stone not reveal his name because of security concerns — had been a U.S. Army infantry officer with the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He’d joined up in 2005 after graduating from Yale, done multiple deployments to Afghanistan, and after getting out of the military, he’d bounced around in a variety of communications roles.

A burly middle-aged man who switched between enthusiastic appraisals of operas to technical analysis of high explosives midsentence, he’d also spent years in Ukraine, touring the front lines of fighting in Donbass about 10 times between June 2015 and August 2017 as a military-focused writer and analyst. He felt a connection to the country and the people, in part because he had also returned to America with a well-connected Ukrainian wife.

Two days after calling to tell me of his plan, Hannibal had assembled a small team of battle-tested former elite combat officers. Two days after that, I was standing with him and his crew in an old Soviet factory building on the outskirts of Lviv, in western Ukraine. Their footsteps echoed hollowly in its large empty rooms, thick dust clinging to their clothing as they planned a crash course in guerrilla warfare.

“The defender has the advantage of being able to choose where to fight,” he told more than three dozen Ukrainian men and women assembled before him. They were intensely nervous, filled with fear about the war on their doorstep. In a mix of puffy coats, camouflage jackets, old uniforms, and New York street fashion, they were a cross section of Ukraine’s Westward-looking middle class. In the gloomy industrial space turned impromptu classroom, the Ukrainians huddled against the cold as snow began falling outside.

*snip*

[4Q2u2]

1. See 1 Major Problem right off the bat

All officers and No Enlisted Men.
Enlisted men run the Military day in and day out.
All those Battle test Officers are alive because of their Enlisted Men.

[Kaleva]

2. Looks like many, if not all, have combat experience

Tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and the leader has a very good knowledge of Ukraine .

As for lack of former NCOs, running the day to day duties in a regular military is not the same as operating a guerilla unit .

[Irish_Dem]

3. What does a guerrilla unit need in terms of personnel, weapons, etc.??

It would seem to be a highly specialized unit compared to regular infantry as you point out.

[Kaleva]

5. I have an old Swiss Army guerilla warfare manual at my other home

It's been decades since I last read it. From what I recall, guerilla units are not organized the same way as regular infantry.

[Irish_Dem]

6. I can google it. Interesting and timely topic.

Yes it would have to be organized in some ways quite differently from typical combat troops.

[4Q2u2]

9. Enlisted

Are the trainers in guerrilla warfare. The NCO are the subject matter experts and teach both Enlisted and Officers. I believe his goal is to train and teach Ukrains guerrilla warfare. Missing subject matter experts is not a good oversight.

The reason the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices it on a daily basis.”
– from a post-war debriefing of a German General

[bluedeathray]

4. If by backfiring, you mean

That their actions could pull in or create a conflict with NATO, it's a possibility.

It doesn't seem likely due to the extra-national nature of this paramilitary group. But when judging the next moves of a madman, it's best to admit possibilities. Especially in the face of the intelligence picture the people in this discussion lack.

There is a romantic notion to these actions. Therefore, any notions of "good" or "moral" behavior are contained within the paramilitary's actions. That's just a characterization of their motives based on human behavior. I don't believe that will affect America's policy decisions.

America is making decisions on a pure sense of self interest. Little "morality" involved. That seems apparent after America's refusal to sign off on sending fighter jets through Poland. Removing or diminishing a threat would be a goal that America's foreign policy would pursue. Not saving Ukraine.

As Russia's economy collapses, one hopes that pressure from it's citizens would affect the decisions coming from Moscow. Again, the mind of a madman...

I wish this group the greatest success. The track record of actions like this seem spotty.

I just reread this, and I'm too tired to know if it makes a lot of sense. It's been a hell of a year so far. Military contracting just kicked up a notch or two.

[SheltieLover]

7. K&R!

[ruet]

8. Hmmm...

"Hannibal — who asked that Rolling Stone not reveal his name because of security concerns — had been a U.S. Army infantry officer with the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He’d joined up in 2005 after graduating from Yale, done multiple deployments to Afghanistan, and after getting out of the military, he’d bounced around in a variety of communications roles."

Not too concerned about security I guess. Seeing as he gave Rolling Stone all the re-identification information a competent intel service would need to find out exactly who he is and Rolling Stone published it.