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As Ukraine\u2019s counteroffensive has rumbled ahead in latest months, it has encountered minefields and forces dug into elaborate trench networks<\/a>. Kyiv\u2019s forces have additionally run up in opposition to a Russian tactic of ceding floor earlier than hanging again.<\/p>\n Stories on Monday illustrated the problem: Russian forces mentioned they’d staged an assault on Ukrainian troops on the entrance line within the Zaporizhzhia area, whereas Ukraine\u2019s forces mentioned it had \u201crepelled the assaults.\u201d<\/p>\n Slightly than holding a line of trenches in any respect prices within the face of Ukraine\u2019s assault, safety specialists say, Russian commanders have employed a longstanding navy tactic generally known as \u201celastic protection.\u201d<\/p>\n The tactic sees Russian forces pull again to a second line of positions, encouraging Ukrainian troops to advance, then strike again when the opposing forces are susceptible \u2014 both whereas transferring throughout open floor or as they arrive at lately deserted Russian positions.<\/p>\n The purpose is to forestall Ukrainian troops from truly securing a place and utilizing it as a base for additional advances. That\u2019s what Ukraine was in a position to do with success in the village of Robotyne<\/a> within the south, their largest breakthrough in latest weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe defender offers floor whereas inflicting as heavy casualties as they’ll on the attackers with a view to having the ability to set the attackers up for a decisive counterattack,\u201d mentioned Ben Barry, a senior fellow for land conflict research on the Worldwide Institute for Strategic Research, a British suppose tank.<\/p>\n This tactic is only one of several factors<\/a> which have impeded extra speedy progress, in keeping with Ukrainian officers and navy specialists. In addition they cite Moscow\u2019s use of dense minefields, networks of trenches and tank boundaries, in addition to the West\u2019s reluctance to provide superior fighter jets<\/a> and longer-range weapons sooner within the conflict.<\/p>\n Maybe probably the most formidable impediment is Russia\u2019s large stockpiles of artillery<\/a>, which have been deployed all through the battle and never least to repel the counteroffensive that started in June.<\/p>\n Elastic protection will not be a brand new method, Mr. Barry mentioned. The Soviet Union employed it throughout its defeat of Germany in 1943 on the Battle of Kursk<\/a>, one of many largest on the japanese entrance throughout World Battle II. Russia additionally seems to have been making use of it for a while in Ukraine.<\/p>\n Assessing whether or not the tactic is being deployed on any given day is troublesome with out direct entry to Russian commanders, specialists mentioned. However the Institute for the Study of War<\/a>, a suppose tank primarily based in Washington, famous indicators of it in latest days round Robotyne, which fell to Ukrainian forces<\/a> on the finish of August.<\/p>\n