Russia's tactical changes in the Ukraine battlefield

Throughout the past time, the Russian army has persisted with the motto "fight steadily, advance slowly" but depending on each stage, there have been major changes in tactics.

During 2024 and the first 6 months of 2025, the Russian army (RFAF) launched a series of attacks on the entire Ukrainian battlefield, from besieging the city of Avdiivka, to besieging Pokrovsk and Kharkov; but depending on each stage of the battle, RFAF applied many tactics to minimize casualties.

During the siege of Avdiivka, the RFAF focused mainly on heavy mechanized infantry, launching a fierce attack on the Avdiivka fortress, located only 6 km northwest of the city of Donetsk, the capital of Donetsk Oblast. At Avdiivka, in good weather, Donetsk airport can be seen.

The Avdiivka Coking Plant is the largest coke producer in Ukraine; the pre-war population of the city was around 32,000. The Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) have turned it into a defensive fortress and see it as a bridgehead for the eventual recapture of Donetsk. As such, it is also a thorn in the side of the Donetsk separatist militia and the RFAF.

To capture Avdiivka, the RFAF mobilized about 40,000 troops and thousands of armored vehicles from the 2nd and 41st Combined Arms Corps of the Russian Central Military District. With the support of artillery and helicopter gunships, they launched a fierce attack on Avdiivka from October 10, 2023 and captured the city on February 17, 2024.

At this point, the RFAF infantry adopted their familiar traditional tactics, namely main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and conventional infantry working together to attack Ukrainian forces defending the city. A more obvious change was the use of guided glide bombs in large numbers, supporting the ground assault.

In mid-2024, as the Russian army's armored fighting force continued to suffer heavy losses in ground combat, their ground tactics also underwent significant changes; that is, the operation to control the area west of Avdiivka and the siege of Pokrovsk.

The city of Pokrovsk is located about 45 km northwest of Avdiivka. The Ukrainian defenses west of Avdiivka are relatively weak, giving the Russians an opportunity to attack from this direction. Before the war, Pokrovsk had a population of about 60,000 and was a relatively prosperous city in the Donetsk region.

Pokrovsk is also a railway and road crossroads in eastern Ukraine, so it has become one of the important AFU material distribution centers on the Donetsk front. From Ugledar in the south, to Kostiantynivka and Chasov Yar in the northeast, the Ukrainian troops stationed in this defensive arc have to rely on logistical support from Pokrovsk.

Therefore, the RFAF's choice to advance to Pokrovsk after capturing Avdiivka was also a tactically sound one. The Russians advanced to Pokrovsk, still using the 2nd and 41st Combined Arms Corps, which had participated in the attack on Avdiivka, as the main force; supplemented by the 90th Tank Division as the operational reserve.

However, the RFAF encountered resistance from the Ukrainian army during the advance towards Pokrovsk, their advance was very slow and the RFAF suffered serious losses in personnel and equipment; especially armored forces.

In such circumstances, RFAF tactics at the time rarely used large-scale armored formations to organize attacks. Instead, RFAF used small infantry groups at squad and platoon levels to organize attacks and repeatedly penetrate Ukrainian defenses.

During this process, the RFAF used only tanks and artillery fire support, to continuously destroy the exposed fire points of the AFU; then captured the AFU positions and used them as starting points for the next attack.

During this period, the RFAF began to use all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles and various civilian vehicles… to quickly transport infantry through dangerous areas of the battlefield and reduce the threat of Ukrainian FPV UAVs to infantry, through rapid movement.

The main strategy of the RFAF is to use Russia's advantage in size and manpower, to continuously find weak links in the AFU's defense line in positional warfare, continuously consume AFU's resources in all aspects, and thus force the Ukrainian army to retreat step by step.

Starting from the end of December 2024, Russian troops in the direction of Kupyansk and Lyman in the Kharkov region began to use armored vehicles such as infantry fighting vehicles and tanks to attack again, which means that the RFAF began to pay attention to this direction, so it was reinforced with certain heavy weapons.

On the one hand, the RFAF may have discovered exploitable weaknesses in the AFU defenses here. On the other hand, they may have adjusted their combat focus in light of the slow progress towards Lyman, hoping to open up new breakthroughs in areas such as Kupyansk and Lyman, in order to once again pose a threat to the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk urban area from the northeast.

However, the RFAF in this area had to overcome the obstacles of the terrain, with many rivers, such as the Oskil and Zhelebet rivers. The terrain factors were not conducive to the operation of large-scale armored forces. Therefore, the RFAF could still continue its tactics of continuous probing attacks with small infantry groups and use armored forces as support or reserve forces.

Throughout 2024 and the first half of 2025, the RFAF’s infantry tactics on the Ukrainian battlefield have changed, reflecting their relatively rapid adaptation. But they have yet to find an effective way to quickly break through the fortified AFU defenses. Therefore, the RFAF can only rely on its numerical and firepower advantages to advance slowly in a war of attrition. (photo source: Military Review, TASS, Kyiv Post).

Source: https://khoahocdoisong.vn/nhung-thay-doi-chien-thuat-cua-nga-o-chien-truong-ukraine-post1551209.html