Donetsk: Eastern Ukraine has become a testing ground for the sophisticated arms and military capabilities of Russia. Here, Russia doesn’t want to repeat the faults committed in the Georgia War. When Russia had last gone to war, at Georgia in 2008, it appeared as an easy victory to them. But during that period their forces were performed very badly in some key areas. They were failed to apply the modern warfare as expected by the Russian generals.
Since then, Russia has spent the seven years for rearming, re-equipping, and retraining their army men, in order to overcome those previous deficiencies. They have also tried a great deal to close the capability gap with the modernized Western armies.
Now the outcome of such preparations can be seen in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists have gained supremacy over troops of the Ukrainian government.
Meanwhile, the Ukraine’s army has not gone through such intensive modernization process, and has been suffering debacle at the war-front. They have no alternatives against the newer weapons and systems supplied by Russia. Two important among them are the use of UAVs (drones) for surveillance and targeting, and the use of electronic warfare. Both technologies were identified as areas of weakness in the Russian forces in 2008, and both have been intensively developed since then. Now, these weapons have been using largely in eastern Ukraine, placing Ukrainian government forces at a strong disadvantage.
Video on the new military equipments being used by Russia in Ukraine
