Russian Adherence to Soviet Doctrine 'Demoralizing' to Troops: Ret. Colonel

Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton said that the "Soviet doctrine" within Russia's military is "demoralizing" the country's troops amid its invasion of Ukraine.

Leighton's comments in a Saturday CNN interview came as Ukraine has made progress in regaining occupied territory from the Russians in recent days. CNN reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Ukrainian troops had taken back 1,000 square kilometers of territory as the nation's military makes a push in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank, said Saturday that Ukrainians have retaken more than 3,000 square kilometers of territory since Tuesday.

On Saturday, CNN host Pamela Brown asked Leighton how much of Ukraine's progress is "about the momentum it has and its capabilities militarily versus just Russia not having the will to fight and not having the organizational structure and what it needs?"

Leighton said that "it's really a combination of both because on the Ukrainian side you have a really streamlined command structure that is really different from what the Russian structure is—they give their lowest echelon the authority to do things."

In comparison, Leighton said that the Russians "are still wedded to Soviet Doctrine in essence which means only the top gets to decide what is going on and how to move forward."

"If you don't get the orders from the top you don't do anything. And that's very demoralizing for the troops in the trenches. And the fact also that they don't really know, Pamela, that they're fighting for a certain ideal or something that is greater than themselves, that makes a real difference in this particular case," the retired colonel added.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment.

On Sunday, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, said that Russian troops are fleeing so fast amid Ukraine's counteroffensive that they are abandoning equipment.

"Today our military accepted first lend lease supplies from Russia in Izyum (that's a joke, of course. I will mark my jokes for some time now)," he tweeted. "Russian soldiers fled so fast they left half of their equipment."

Ukrainian military officials also said last week that Moscow had deployed helicopters in an effort to round up soldiers who had deserted their positions in the Kherson region.

"In the temporarily occupied territory of Kherson region, in the area of Babenkivka Second settlement, the enemy had to deploy helicopters and weapons to search for fugitives and return them to combat positions," General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine wrote on Facebook.