NOLAN PETERSON: LESSONS FROM RUSSIA'S INVASION OF UKRAINE
March 30, 2023Nolan Peterson
The following is a condensed version of a presentation delivered to the Joint Special Operations University at MacDill Air Force Base on March 23, 2023.
In those final weeks before Russia’s full-scale invasion, I spent a lot of time with Kyiv’s territorial defense forces, as well as other groups, like the Georgian National Legion, which were training civilian volunteers for combat.
I remember standing out there in those snowy fields on some brutally cold winter days, watching these civilians — men and women of all backgrounds, from teenagers to people in their sixties and seventies — as they ran through combat drills and trained to attack Russian tanks.
I kept thinking, Are they really gonna do it?
If Russia invaded, I wondered whether these everyday people would really have the courage to face the gunfire, the artillery, and the missiles — would they really have the courage to face all that, hold their ground, and fight back?
More than one year later, we have our answer.
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