Russia's Military Leadership 'Increasingly Dysfunctional'—U.K.

Despite the recent dramatic escalation in the war in Ukraine, with Russia unleashing a new wave of missile strikes against Ukrainian cities, the Russian military leadership on the battleground is "increasingly dysfunctional," according to an assessment by the British Ministry of Defence.

Nearly nine months into the invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, the latest British intelligence suggests that Russian troops on the ground are suffering from a "worsening shortage of capable Russian junior officers" who are badly needed to organize and lead newly mobilized reservists. According to reports, the recently drafted troops are being sent to the front after receiving little to no training.

A high number of Russian officers have reportedly been killed in Ukraine since February, including a number of generals, colonels and majors. Already in late May, the British Ministry of Defence said that Russia was suffering "devastating losses" especially among the mid and junior ranking officers, pushed to the front of the action.

Russian losses among the troops are likely over 80,000 killed or wounded, as estimated by Western intelligence. In recent weeks, tens of thousands of young men have been mobilized through President Vladimir Putin's military call-up to hold the line in the territory already illegally annexed by Moscow.

But the reservists, reportedly poorly trained and poorly equipped, are already dying in combat in Ukraine and experts say they won't make much of a difference militarily on the ground.

According to the British Ministry of Defence, "poor lower-level leadership is likely worsening the low morale and poor unit cohesion in many parts of the Russian force."

The results of this worsening of troop morale was clear in the shooting deaths of 11 Russian soldiers at a military training ground near Belgorod by a fellow recruit on October 15, said the British Ministry of Defence. According to British intelligence, eyewitness testimony suggests that the shooting "occurred after an officer's abusive comments towards ethnic minority recruits."

Ethnic minority groups in Russia have been bearing the brunt of war efforts, as the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War writes, as they're unequally drafted into the army while "protecting ethnic Russians and wealthier Russian citizens." The attack near Belgorod last Saturday is driving a further marginalization of these minority communities, with Russian media responding to the shooting blamed on two ethnically Tajik Russian citizens with poisonous xenophobic rhetoric.

The partial mobilization, which ran into strong criticism from Russian civilians, was announced to be over in the Moscow area on October 17.

The consistent lack of capable leadership on the battleground is also behind Russia's lack of notable success in Ukraine. According to the British Ministry of Defence, despite the fact that four of the five generals who had direct operational command of elements of the invasion in February have now been dismissed, "their replacements have so far done little to improve Russia's battlefield performance."

Russia has been stepping up its offensive in Ukraine following the Crimea bridge attack, striking key infrastructure, civilian targets and cities far beyond the border, including Kyiv. But despite this renewed aggression, Russian troops are still struggling to control the regions in southeastern Ukraine that they occupied earlier in the war.

The British Ministry of Defence predicted that the lack of continuity in command will be very disruptive for the Russian military, which relies heavily on commanders to personally develop strategies.