My basic view is that hybrid warfare is nothing new and doesn't require all the angst of how to respond to the diabolically clever ploy of Russia invading another country under the obviously false cover of a local insurrection which is backed by obviously false propaganda that legitimizes the AstroTurfed local groups and supports the Russian denial of invading.
Ukrainians increasingly believe the Donbas is lost. And it is lost--because Ukraine isn't trying to retake the region and the West isn't backing them to do so. Seriously, two divisions of the quality of American forces backed by similarly good air and fire support would shred the Russian and Russian-backed forces holding the Donbas in a short campaign.
And even Crimea, which was a rapid near-bloodless conquest in 2014 rather than the bloody ongoing stalemate of the Donbas partial conquest, isn't the example proponents of hybrid warfare like to claim it is. Ukraine was in chaos from the revolution and while the Russian invasion force was outnumbered by the "defending" Ukrainian troops, I think the 10,000 Russian invaders cited (and more than that in the Sevastopol base complex) faced but a single combat battalion of Ukrainian marines among the 16,000 largely support troops on the peninsula who remained in their bases unsure of what to do or who had authority in Ukraine--and many of whom were unsure of who they wanted to win.
The key to Russia's success with their "hybrid" warfare against Ukraine is that the West goes along with the fiction that Russia has not invaded Ukraine!
Good Lord people, Russian "hybrid warfare" is just Russian aggression that we pretend isn't happening. Sadly, there's nothing new or novel about that.
This isn't some new and baffling form of warfare. This is Western refusal to admit that Russia is committing aggression.
All the talk about "hybrid warfare" is just an excuse to avoid admitting that Russia is committing aggression. Ooh. This is new! Let's study it and avoid confronting the Russians until we comprehend this diabolically clever ploy!
And that's a sad tale as old as history.
