- Jun 6, 2007
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This evening on CNN's "Out Front" with Erin Burnett there was a story on a Ukrainian soldier's video of his unit while his unit was on the front line and under attack by Russian forces and they were trying to hold a tree line. The video showed four Russian tanks drive parallel to the tree line and shoot up three Ukrainian combat units which had taken a defensive position in the tree line they were hit so hard and took such casualties that they had to withdraw. What struck me as odd is that numerous countries in the Free World have committed to supplying Ukraine with basic weapons to win this war so why did this unit not have a javelin anti-tank missile system where the unit could have used it and taken out some of these tanks. Or why did the unit not call in artillery to take out the tanks and protect their position. American combat units ordinarily have an artillery shield or cover when they are on the front lines to protect them from an assault from a tank unit doesn't the Ukrainian army have such fundamental tactics policy. In this case did the Ukrainian command responsible for this unit drop the ball by not providing this unit artillery protection, are the Ukrainian artillery units that fire the m777 howitzers not that good could they not hit a tank column forty yards in front of a tree line would they possibly hit their own soldiers if they tried. The Ukrainian military is supposed to have been well trained by Western countries military, it looked to me like the trainers of that unit sucked or maybe that unit's absorbing of the training sucked and they need to be retrained, in any event it was a pretty pitiful display of combat performance!
