A Russian military vehicle is seen near the village of Oktyabrsky, Belgorod Region, near the Russian-Ukrainian border. (Photo by Anton Vergun\TASS via Getty Images)
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has both surprised and informed Western military onlookers, who are getting a better view of what the Kremlin’s forces are capable of in the field.And so far they aren’t impressed.Multiple Western military sources who spoke to VICE News on background and on the condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak with the media, say their opinion of Russia’s military abilities has gone down.“What I’m seeing is unbelievable,” said a source involved in the special forces community. “I think this is why they pivoted so hard toward influence operations,” they added, referring to Russia’s well-established meddling and troll farms used against Western democracies in recent years.In the last several days, Russian forces have continued to hammer both the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv and the capital Kyiv with heavy bombing, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claims Russian troops have sustained at least 4,500 casualties. Ukraine’s defence forces, bolstered by civilian volunteers, have managed to keep Russian forces from overrunning Ukraine’s two biggest cities, although the on-the-ground fighting has moved closer to those locations. Ukraine has claimed it has severely damaged Russia’s supply lines, slowing the advance. Another military source told VICE News that officials and analysts within the U.S. military were “psyched” to see what types of weapons and hardware their Russian adversaries are using and how their airstrike tradecraft and radar systems work. The brutal war, which has already claimed thousands of lives since it began last Thursday, also offers the chance to gain intelligence about Russian military operations and how they’ve evolved in recent years.
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- Are you in a NATO military and have tips? Ben Makuch can be reached on email at ben.makuch@vice.com and on the Wire app at @ben