War is 90% information.
Napoleon Bonaparte
26/02/2022: Ukraine’s president announced that anyone in the world can volunteer in the front line of defense of the country.
The problem is that most of these individuals and civilians lack military background or battlefield experience.
This article can serve as a starting guide for urban combat and for survival.
I also had hopes that nobody, especially in Europe, would ever need such information.
But here we are.
Some important notes beforehand
- I always try to remain unbiased and provide impartial &usefulinformation
- if there is anything that should be changed or added here, you can contact me (I’m open to suggestions)
- the war between Russia & Ukraine is not new, it has been going on since 2014 (I see a lot of people finding out only now)
- I have been following this conflict since 2018, when it was only a cyberwar, as it implied some of the most sophisticated hacks and vulnerabilities at the time (NSA related). Here is a list of the cyberattacks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian%E2%80%93Ukrainian_cyberwarfare
- if you want a pretty good explanation for why is all of this happening, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/If61baWF4GE
- always inform yourself from sources that verify (or at least discuss) the veracity of the information before posting it, like Wikipedia
- most of the tips enlisted here are from a former U.S. Marine with extensive fighting experience in Iraq, who chose to remain anonymous
- the current offensive in Ukraine is the biggest mistake I have ever witnessed. What I can say for sure, related to a possible happy ending, is that the Kremlin should be mature enough to:
– admit its mistakes and stop the offensive immediately
– accept help from the rest of the world to rebuild its democracy and Russia’s economy
Until then, the tips …
- Stay out of the street! The worst place to be in an urban warfare environment is to be outside.
- Doors are called “the fatal funnel”. It is human nature to try and enter through a door. Aim all your weapons at the door.
- Block the door from the inside with anything you can, furniture, chairs, booby-traps, but keep a percent of mobility to it. The idea is to make the invaders think the door isn’t blocked. That way, when entering, they remain exposed for the longest amount of time possible.
- Stairways are another crucial zone. Block the stairways with any obstacles you can to slow down invaders. This way you also make them pay attention to their feet, while you are upstairs.
- If you throw grenades downstairs, have your magazine fully topped and ready. The invaders will most likely run up the stairs to run past the grenade blast. You’ll need all the ammo you have to gun as many down as possible.
- When possible, cut small holes in the floor into the rooms below to fire into. People breaching rooms will look for threats directly in front of them and usually don’t look above or below until last.
- Don’t sling your weapon around your body. If things go hand-to-hand it will hinder you.
- Have a knife, spade, or club close by and readily available. If you have to fight hand-to-hand it’s much more handy than a rifle.
- Never fire from the same window twice.
- Never stick the muzzle of your rifle outside of a window. Don’t expose it.
- Shoot from deep inside the room out the window. It will help hide the muzzle flash and reduce the noise, making it hard to tell where it came from.
- If you wound an enemy, don’t kill him. Let his friends come to help him. Moving a wounded soldier means it will take 4 men out of the fight to carry him away. That’s 4 less rifles firing at you.
- Shoot the men trying to evacuate the wounded soldier. It will demoralize them.
- Keep as many carbohydrates an you and remember to eat and hydrate. Urban warfare is incredibly intensive.
- Keep moving. Never stay in one spot very long.
- One very accurately placed shot can hold up a lot of people for a long time. You don’t have to be a sniper. You just have to convince them there is one in the area.
- Use the sewers in subways to move whenever possible.
- Whenever possible, try to let other friends know where you are located, to avoid friendly fire. It’s very easy to start shooting at each other in an urban environment.
- It may be consuming, but take the tracers out of your ammunition supply and refrain from using them.
- Have one magazine of all tracer rounds. Use this magazine only when you need to let everyone else know where an enemy is located at. After using it, run away immediately.
- Ammunition goes fast. Conserve what you have, especially when using automatic weapons. Take into consideration the recoil and fire only 2-3 shots at a time.
- 10 men firing from several different buildings can appear to be a small army and stop a lot of people.
- Rip down street signs, deface building names and do anything to strip the identity of where you are at. This will add confusion to an invading force.
- Evacuate your wounded in a timely manner if possible.
- If the enemy suddenly pulls back, GET OUT OF THE AREA IMMEDIATELY. It does not mean you are winning. It means they are going to call in heavy artillery or an air strike on your position.
- If you are going to lose an area, poison common water supplies. Most likely, an enemy will try to refill their supplies at the closest source.
- Cluster your booby traps in close proximity to create paranoia.
Also …
- in combat, you are going to experience horrible things: collapsing buildings, dead people, mutilated/burnt corpses of humans and animals, your friends disappearing a.s.o. This is the nature of war. You have to keep that in mind, as everything will happen very fast. Panic is your worst enemy, while the adrenaline rush is probably your best friend.
- You have to keep yourself calm and collected at all times. This will help you be aware of everything that is happening around you. You cannot lose yourself.
Good luck.