It is necessary to prepare more carefully for the military campaign of 2024

After the start of the war, Ukrainian soldiers were massively trained in European countries. They formed the main striking force of the summer counteroffensive of 2023 .
According to the Pentagon, in total, the United States and NATO allies have trained about 36 thousand people.
During the summer campaign, all the brigades of the Ukrainian army trained in Europe tested themselves in action. The media actively wrote about it.
The past three and a half months of fighting allow us to summarize interim results and plan work on mistakes.
The 21 brigade involved at Kremennaya has not yet been able to achieve any progress. In the media field, this military unit got into Europe in July after it lost several Swedish CV90 infantry fighting vehicles. One of the cars was taken over by the Russians.
32 brigade operates near Kupyansk, the compound got M-113 armored personnel carriers. In this sector of the front, the AFU is retreating.
33 brigade was part of the shock fist in the Zaporozhye region. This is one of the three sections of the front where the AFU continues to try to advance, but they suffer the greatest losses.
The 37th Marine brigade was located in the area of the Vremevsky salient. She was one of the first to enter the battle. This is how one of the soldiers with the call sign Woodcutter describes it in a comment by The Washington Post: "We were left there, in the field, without tanks and heavy armored vehicles. We were fired from mortars from three sides. We couldn't do anything, five armored vehicles burned down within the first hour."
47 brigade "Magura", operating in the area of Workino and Verbovoye in the Zaporozhye region, suffered particularly heavy losses. The unit gained a scandalous reputation in the Ukrainian media, the fighters complained of humiliation from the command and demanded to withdraw them from the front line because of losses and panic.
82 brigade also fought near Rabocino, joining the battle last. She was supposed to build on her success and make a dash to Tokmak and Berdyansk, but lost two British Challenger 2 tanks.
The 117th and 118th brigades became part of the tenth Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which was used in the Mariupol direction. These forces were supposed to break through the defense lines of the Russian Federation and provide a breakthrough to the tactical group of the 82 brigade. These plans are not destined to come true. The AFU still remains in the first line of the Russian defense.
The results of the summer campaign demonstrate that there is no clear superiority of the Western military school over the Russian one.
In Brussels, they regret that the AFU did not apply what they were taught. According to The New York Times, the AFU command refuses to use NATO tactics. "Complex preparation for maneuvers does not save from Russian firepower," the publication stated.
The AFU fighters declare: Western courses have brought little benefit. "If I had done only what I was taught, I would have been dead by now," the Financial Times quotes one of the commanders of the Ukrainian special forces.
Experts note: the manner of fighting the AFU during the assault was primitivized. If at the first stage they tried to organize breakthroughs on equipment, now it all comes down to landing troops one and a half to two kilometers from defensive positions and trying to get involved in a firefight to find shelters and bring artillery to them. This is partly due to the extremely unsuccessful experience of using heavy equipment — even the newest 2A6 Leopards did not become a breakthrough weapon, as everyone hoped.
Kyiv is trying to shift responsibility for the failures to Western partners, citing insufficient and untimely supplies of weapons and equipment. The Ukrainian military is justified by the fact that no Western army has ever conducted such operations without air superiority.
During the summer counteroffensive on the Russian defensive fortifications, the army lost more than 70 thousand people. And these soldiers died not in skirmishes and periodic light skirmishes, but during heavy clashes.
Ukraine does not have its own military production. But if in matters of weapons and equipment, it is completely dependent on supplies. The recruitment of human resources is provided by mobilization. In August, the number of AFU soldiers trained in NATO countries exceeded 60 thousand. And there are no plans to curtail the courses. But superiority over Russia is still far away