Navigating Russia's Strange Guidelines: A Look at the Battlefield Playbook for Russian Soldiers Engaged in Ukraine Conflict

In late 2022, a Russian military manual titled "I Live, I Fight, I Win! Rules of Life in War" was discovered on the internet. This manual offers insights into the strategic objectives and expectations of the Russian armed forces in their ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The manual emphasizes the soldier’s need to survive under harsh and challenging combat conditions, reflecting a recognition that the operational environment is likely to be brutal and protracted. This focus on survival and resilience is a key theme throughout the manual, underlining the need for mental toughness and adaptability.

The manual also underscores an offensive mentality, with the slogan "I Fight, I Win!" The Russian military appears intent on maintaining an aggressive and decisive approach, rather than adopting purely defensive postures.

Individual responsibility and initiative are also highlighted in the manual. The Russian military encourages personal responsibility and decision-making by individual soldiers and junior commanders, emphasizing that victory depends not only on superior weapons but on the mindset and initiative of each combatant.

Discipline and order are core themes in the manual, reflecting Russian military tradition. Soldiers are expected to follow orders precisely and maintain cohesion under fire.

The rulebook also stresses psychological conditioning to withstand fear, fatigue, uncertainty, and confusion inherent in modern warfare. This echoes the Russian military doctrine’s focus on moral-psychological support as a critical component of combat effectiveness.

The manual also reflects an understanding of multi-domain threats, including irregular warfare, information operations, and technological challenges, anticipating complex, flexible engagements beyond conventional battlefield scenarios.

Victory as the ultimate goal is another key theme in the manual. The framing "I Win!" reflects an uncompromising goal of achieving operational and strategic victory, often at high costs, emphasizing determination and endurance.

The manual aligns with a two-echelon logistics approach, where engaged units are expected to operate in a state of degradation. This suggests that supply shortages may exist along the entirety of the supply chain.

The Russian military appears to be dealing with these challenges by reverting to dated tactics, as evident in the manual's simplistic improvisational advice and reliance on rail logistics for resupply.

At the strategic level, the integration of post-Soviet Russia into the international economy and the sanctions put in place as a result of the war have left Russia with a degraded industrial capacity, and few international allies to help it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia as "four new regions" of Russia on September 30, 2022. However, Putin has also expressed openness to seeking a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine.

The Russian economy is struggling to support a resource-intensive, Soviet-style campaign due to its integration into the global economy and the sanctions put in place as a result of the war. After Russia's 2008 war with Georgia, Putin set out to lighten and modernize his forces for small-scale local and regional conflicts. However, the current conflict in Ukraine seems to have necessitated a return to more traditional, heavy tactics.

The manual is aimed at newly mobilized conscripts and provides tactical-level advice, as well as propaganda. A physical copy of the manual was claimed to have been captured on the battlefield, offering a tangible insight into the Russian military's mindset and operational approach.

The manual's focus is on the entirety of Ukraine, not just the eastern regions where ground combat is currently contained, suggesting possible limits to Russian military objectives. The objectives are centered on creating a land bridge to Crimea to guarantee the flow of fresh water, fuel, and supplies to Russia’s critical naval port of Sevastopol.

The manual was first reported on by Latvian journalist Kristaps Andrejsons, who discovered it on the website of the Russian Defense Ministry and described it on his podcast. The manual offers simplistic improvisational advice, obvious and rudimentary warnings, and in some cases, a fatalistic shoulder shrug regarding particular threats. For instance, instructions in the manual detail how to make field-expedient footwraps, contradicting statements made by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who ordered in 2013 that footwraps be fully replaced with socks as part of modernization efforts.

In conclusion, "I Live, I Fight, I Win!" encapsulates the Russian military’s strategic expectation that its forces will embody resilience, offensive tenacity, disciplined flexibility, and psychological readiness to prevail in war. It reflects a doctrinal culture that values the individual soldier’s mindset as foundational to achieving national military objectives.

Navigating Russia's Strange Guidelines: A Look at the Battlefield Playbook for Russian Soldiers Engaged in Ukraine Conflict