- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was marked by a disinformation campaign and attacks on civilian areas.
- The US is already using these lessons in army training for possible future wars, The AP reported.
- US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the entire military is trying to learn from Ukraine.
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US Army instructors are already using lessons learned from Russia’s war in Ukraine to train soldiers for possible future conflicts with adversaries such as Russia or China, The Associated Press reported.
“I think right now the whole army is really looking at what’s happening in Ukraine and trying to learn lessons,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told The AP.
According to The AP, this month’s training at the National Training Center includes role players who speak Russian. The scenario focuses on enemy forces using social media to make propaganda about US troops, as well as forces using missiles to capture cities.
Wormuth told The AP that the crisis in Ukraine shows how important the information sector will be for the US armed forces.
Brig. General Curt Taylor said the goal is to train brigades on how to use all of their tools in combat to mount a coordinated attack, including countering misinformation online.
Russia has used disinformation online and in state-sponsored media to disrupt the narrative that Ukraine is the aggressor in the invasion. Using real images from the war, propaganda machines give a different explanation of what happened.
Another part of the training focuses on dealing with an enemy ready to use missiles to attack civilian areas, The AP reported.
Russia has attacked hospitals and apartment buildings, among other things. Ukraine, along with numerous other countries, has accused Russia of war crimes in attacking civilian areas.
“We have to be prepared for urban combat, where we have an opponent who is firing artillery indiscriminately,” Taylor said.