A Return to Mass: Russian Force Expansion in the War with Ukraine

Article excerpt

Joseph Stalin famously said that quantity has a quality of its own. Yet the course of the Russo-Ukrainian War shows both the benefits and the eventual limitations of that approach. As the quantitative advantage grew on the Russian side, its ability to employ force at scale decreased. The resulting dynamic became a paradox: As Moscow fielded more forces, the value of that mass steadily diminished. The quality that the Russians expected to come from attaining quantitative advantages did not appear on the battlefield but was, over time, offset by Ukrainian adaptation, technology, and Western capital. Russian force expansion offered a The post A Return to Mass: Russian Force Expansion in the War with Ukraine appeared first on War on the Rocks.