Russia-Ukraine: Planning And Operational Art Of War

NEW DELHI: The war between Russia and Ukraine is now into its second year and neither side is giving up just yet. Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the West for starting the war; the West has been supporting Ukraine with monetary aid and military equipment. The Russians did suffer initial setbacks. Russia made hasty decisions; there were gaps in planning, says Rear Admiral Sudarshan Shrikhande (Retd), former chief of India’s naval intelligence. Several aspects—especially diplomatic, information, military, economic (DIME)— need to be well thought out before going to war, he told StratNews Global Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale on ‘The Gist’, pointing to lessons from the Indo-Pak war of 1971 and the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) sent by India to Sri Lanka in the late-1980s.