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So I've been asked what my advice would be to civilian resistors in Ukriane, especially Kyiv. Someone with no military training but wanting to resist. Here are a few things #Kyiv #UkraineUnderAttack :
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You have the power but you have to fight smart. The urban defense is hell for any soldier. It usually take 5 attackers to 1 defender. Russians do not have the numbers. Turn Kyiv and any urban area leading to Kyiv into a porcupine.
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Go out and build obstacles in the streets! Start with any bridge you can find (they should have been destroyed). Block them with cars, trucks, concrete, wood, trash, anything! Then block any spot in the city where there are tall buildings on each side. Already tight areas.
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Once you have obstacles (never stop building). I really mean thousands of barriers/obstacles. You can decided places to fight. Places to shoot from or ambush any soldier or vehicle that stops or slows down at your obstacles.
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If it is a street you still need to use. Build a S pattern obstacle that still slows a vehicle down. Think police check point (which you could set up if you wanted to catch saboteurs before military reach your location)
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Do NOT stand in the open and shoot or throw anything (to include molotov cocktail) at a Russian soldier or vehicles. Shoot from windows, behind cars, around alleyway corners. Build positions (concrete best) to fire from.
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You must prepare for the Russians to start using artillery to help their troops. Make sure the places you choose to shoot from are strong. If in a building, make holes in the walls so you can shoot from and bigger ones to move to other rooms or buildings. You must survive.
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Yes, use your molotov cocktails. Think about where you will stand to throw (then run). Dropping from windows above vehicles most ideal. Vehicles without weapons on top the most vulnerable, but if it is armor, choose where to hit.
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Form into groups. Ideally 3 to 5 and decided where to shoot at Russians from. You get to decide. Best if coordinated with another group and using your obstacles to slow something and shoot at from concealed and protected positions.
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Again, your survival to fight is important so think hard about where you will shoot from. Elevated positions down long streets. Shoot and run. Ambushes. Aim for the windows and doors of non-armor vehicles. Soldiers in open. One of the greatest fears of a soldier is a sniper.
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You are not a sniper, but you can put fear in their hearts if they think there are snipers everywhere. Again take care of yourselves to be able to resist. Drink water. 3 days without water and you won't be able to fight. More later.
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In a city attack, there are basically 8 rules. If you are the defenders, the more you can take advantage of these rules, the harder you can make it on the attacker. Grind them to a halt. #UrbanWarfare #Ukraine #UkraineUnderAttack mwi.usma.edu/the-eight-rule…
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Kyiv most be held. Ukraine is winning. Not losing is winning. The one objective of the Russian Army is to move as quickly as possible to encircle (isolate) and penetrate #Kyiv More humble advice from #urbanwarfare history/studies:
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There should be no road to Kyiv or through any city that is not blocked in some way. No road should allow free rapid driving a single vehicle. If a road needs to be used by civilians, create a serpentine "s" obstacle. These can serve as checkpoints to search for infiltrators
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Fully block any main road or bridge that you know military vehicles will come down or have already come down (more will follow). Block with the biggest, heaviest, strongest things you can think of: Buses, dump trucks, semi-trailers, cars (flatten tires/take batteries), rocks,
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It is time to turn Kyiv into a fortress. Every street, every alley, every building. It has to be hard to move and see down streets. The goal is for the enemy to not know where you are and where a bullet will come from. Force them into areas you want them to go.
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One of the most powerful defense tactics is the establishment of engagement areas (kill zones...places the enemy will die). 7 simple steps (adjusted for simplicity):
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Do you know what works well at stopping armored vehicles (most), wheeled vehicles, soldiers. Razor wire. Stacked three high. Nasty to cut out of tracks/wheel wells. Have any #Kyiv ? If so, get it out!! In urban. String between two bldgs #UkraineRussiaWar #porcupine
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To the Ukrainian people fighting. You MUST to block all the streets. Slow vehicles down so you can shoot at them or throw Molotovs at them. You must be inside buildings. Anyone with a weapon on the streets can be seen by Russians and hit by rockets or artillery. @KyivIndependent
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Prepared urban defenders have the advantage. In 2016, it took over 100,000 security forces 9 months to take Mosul against 5 to 10,000 ISIS. It took hundreds of thousands of Soviets to take Stalingrad. Russia doesn't have the numbers. Kyiv can hold. Ukraine can win. #urbanwarfare
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Just to be clear, there is no military purpose to fire a thermobaric rocket (aka vacuum/flame bomb which sucks the oxygen out of the air, room, lungs & replaces with fire) into any dense urban area. If done it should be rapidly investigated as a war crime. forbes.com/sites/nicholas…
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I speak for no organization. As a person, a human, I strongly believe we (the west) can & should do more to help #Ukriane fight Russia. They are fighting for us. Dying for us. Children, pregnant women. I understand the escalation concerns/constraints, but we can/must do more, NOW
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This makes me very sad. Like I am not doing enough. I have girls this age. We (the world) must do more to help Ukraine. I understand all the political and escalation lines. I don’t care. We can and must do more.
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The battle of #Kyiv is coming. Ukrainians must never stop preparing the defense: blocking all roads/alleys/doors/windows, setting up caches/fighting positions, putting holes in walls 2 move between bldgs & shoot thru, digging, & being ready to both get underground/ready to fight!
Chair of Urban Warfare Studies | Madison Policy Forum | Author of Connected Soldiers / Understanding Urban Warfare