A British military instructor told The Telegraph that expensive NATO weapons were being used ineffectively in Ukraine. According to him, the Ukrainian army was combining Western weapons with Soviet military doctrines, leading to significant losses of valuable equipment and ammunition.
Ukrainian forces tend to use the British-supplied NLAW missiles (worth about £20,000 each) in a manner similar to cheap Russian RPG-7s, rather than applying them for precision strikes against enemy armored targets. In some cases, they fire five or six NLAW missiles at once, expending hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of ammunition in a single salvo.
While NATO relies on "combined forces" tactics, involving coordination between artillery, air power and armour, the Russian strategy relies on massive artillery strikes and the mobilisation of large numbers of low-skilled soldiers for front-line attacks. Ukrainian commanders often refuse to adopt Western doctrines, considering them unworkable in front-line conditions.
Even more worrying for allies is the fact that Ukrainian forces often abandon on the battlefield command posts for the Javelin systems, which are reusable and valuable and expensive. The cost of one such system can exceed $100,000. According to British military sources, the Russian army probably currently has more Javelin systems than the British armed forces, as the Ukrainians are abandoning them en masse in their rapid retreats.
British instructors have also reported cases of corruption related to the supply of Western equipment. Some Ukrainian units are receiving equipment with missing parts, including missing seat belts in transport vehicles. In addition, trucks with military equipment sometimes mysteriously disappear before reaching the front line.
Due to high casualties and the ineffective use of Western weapons, Ukraine is demanding more supplies of cheap Soviet weapons. This is causing European countries to seek old stocks of Soviet ammunition and weapons in former Warsaw Pact countries, including Bulgaria, which is a supplier of such weapons.
Some Ukrainian officers are openly critical of NATO training methods. After the Ukrainian Army's fully NATO-trained 155th Brigade "Anna Kievska" disintegrated due to organizational chaos and heavy casualties, commanders such as Sergei Filimonov declared that "NATO methods do not correspond to the realities of modern warfare."
A March 2024 analysis by the U.S. Congressional Research Service concluded that adherence to Soviet-style doctrine among senior Ukrainian officers had increased since the beginning of the war.
It noted that General Oleksandr Syrsky, who is an ethnic Russian and received his training at the Moscow Higher Military Command School in the 1980s, was appointed Ukrainian commander-in-chief in 2024.
In 2023 A leaked German military document says Ukrainian forces are ignoring lessons learned from Western training, denying the advantages of NATO weapons and tactics.
It says Ukraine is breaking up NATO-style formations into smaller units and failing to adapt to Western maneuver warfare, blaming a Ukrainian "operational doctrine" that is ingrained in its officer corps.