Yep. At a minimum the US and UK had special forces training the Ukraine Army after 2014. That is really what they are for, not kicking in doors and clearing a house, like is so often portrayed. They are supposed to train the locals on how to fight and maybe fight with them depending on circumstances. At this point of the war, there would not be any US military personal in the Ukraine. They would be CIA contractors.
I read somewhere, I think it was the Wall Street Journal, that after 2014, the US and the Ukraine government started to work clearing out incompetent people from the military and government. They were also looking for and clearing out the traitors. There were still incompetent, if not down right traitors in the high level positions, but lower level people knew who was a problem, worked on their planning and training in spite of the obstacles, and eventually got many of these people out of the way.
In the early stages of the war, the hit and run tactics being used on the Russian columns was almost certainly a plan developed with the US/UK special forces.
However, the Ukrainian people also rose up to fight and it was more than just making Molotov cocktails. The WSJ had a report out a week or so back about this issue and it explained something that had puzzled me from the early days in the war. At the start of the war, people came out of their houses and started to look on how to fight the Russians. Some made food. Guys with drones started flying to provide intelligence to whatever Ukrainian unit was near by. These drone guys were eventually formally entered into service. Another group of people went looking for weapons and went to an armory but were turned away. They went to another armory, nobody was there and they found two inoperative APCs. They fixed the APCs, some soldiers returned so they gave one to the unit, kept the other, got weapons and went to fight the Orcs.
Early on, the initial reports from the Russian occupied areas, was the the Russians were looking for civilian owned weapons and they had the registration lists, either provided by traitors or taken from government offices.
I might be adding two and two and getting 12 but another person they talked about was a woman who was a reporter years ago. She took photos of one of the corrupt rich leaders house and was beaten up by thugs. She eventually was elected to office and learned how to fire anti tank weapons. She was part of the citizen groups and the army that stopped the Russian advance on Kiev. From what the article described, it sounded like she was the one firing on the Russian column that was videoed by drone where the column took a few hits, turn around and ran. The column did not dismount infantry to take out the ambush, they just ran. This was one of the best Russian units.
The explained mystery was the flooding that blocked most of the Russian advance on Kiev. Early on, it was reported that the Russians had blown a dam causing the flooding, which made no sense, even when the Russians don't seem to do the smart thing. Turns out a local man who knew the area, including fortified positions from WWII, and the local history, knew that opening the flood gates would flood a huge area, including houses, but it would halt the Russian advance. He went to the local Ukrainian Army commander, laid out a map to show the flood zone, and asked for help. The commander gave him explosives and a couple of engineers and blew the flood gates. THAT made more sense then the Russians being that stupid. The flood did leave a bit of dry land that was passable to the Russians, who did find the path, so they blew another flood gate.
The Ukrainians are showing remarkable flexibility dealing with the Russians. Flexibility is NOT something the Russians understand and they simply never had the forces to steam roller the Urainians.
Later,
Dan
