Russia’s ‘elastic defense’ has a structural weakness

A rebuttal to New York Times Article on Russian defense

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The NewYork Times recently published an article titled “Russian Troops Cede Ground and Strike Back, Frustrating Ukraine’s Counteroffensive.” While I agree with the idea of elastic defense mentioned in the Times’ story, which involves ceding territory to the enemy to attrit their strength as they advance into layers of defense, the Russian army hasn’t executed this strategy exactly as intended. There exists a structural weakness.

Before discussing the weakness that Ukraine seeks to exploit, let’s delve into the concept of defense-in-depth, also known as elastic defense.

In defense-in-depth, the defender creates multiple layers of defense, with each layer progressively strengthening.

Given that the continuous Russian front stretches almost 170 kilometers in Southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian army has chosen to penetrate the front at three different axes.