Russian troops aren’t being trained to fight at night, and this gives Ukraine an edge

This article by Natalie Musumeci was originally published by Business Insider.

Russian troops are having a hard time fighting Ukrainian forces at night in part because they aren’t trained to do so, giving Kyiv an advantage over Moscow in the dark, according to British intelligence.

The UK’s Ministry of Defense said in its latest daily intelligence update on Tuesday that it’s “highly likely” that Russian forces “continue to struggle when fighting at night.”

“Numerous reports from combatants have highlighted this trend” since the February 2022 start of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grinding war with Ukraine, the UK intelligence group said.

British intelligence said that there is thought to be a “cultural element” to Russia’s night-fighting problem because Russian military training “has rarely emphasized night exercises.”

Russian military training typically happens in the daytime “to impress senior visiting officers,” according to the UK’s Ministry of Defense.

Additionally, Ukraine has the upper hand in the dark and can carry out nighttime offensives against Russian forces thanks to equipment, including night-vision goggles, supplied by Western nations.

Related: The Army’s IVAS super-goggle prototypes have arrived but can they live up to the hype?

British intelligence said in its latest assessment that in late November, a social media user claiming to be a Russian soldier serving in the Ukrainian city of Kherson “highlighted the shortage of night-vision goggles,” as well as “low-light cameras for uncrewed aerial vehicles.”

Night-vision goggles, the UK intelligence group said, “have frequently featured high in the lists of equipment Russian units request from their families and supporters.”

“Ukrainian forces have often been equipped with night vision devices from international partners,” said the UK’s Ministry of Defense.

A war expert previously told Business Insider that Russia simply can’t afford to arm its forces with pricey night-vision capabilities.

“The Russian military is pretty well known for lacking some of these higher-end capabilities, even before the war and even before the military was stressed and degraded,” said George Barros, a geospatial intelligence team lead and Russia analyst with the Institute for the Study of War.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops have been met with heavy resistance from Russian forces amid Kyiv’s counteroffensive that was launched in June. Ukraine’s counteroffensive has failed to make significant headway over the last few months of hard fighting.

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