Lessons Learned from the War in Ukraine Applicable to Taiwan: The Land Domain

The war in Ukraine has revived interstate warfare in the current strategic practice. This war illustrates the use of various old and new techniques in warfighting, employing both Western cutting-edge and Soviet-era equipment. Different innovations and adaptations have been witnessed across domains. Each war is unique, but it can provide some distilled lessons for learning about the ongoing trends in warfighting and the employment of new and old equipment. Although the experiences of the war in Ukraine are universal, each country selects a set of lessons suitable for their distinctive geopolitical location and strategic situation. This guest paper by Dr Viktoriya Fedorchak explores the lessons that can be learned from the land domain, focusing on the relevance for the potential Taiwan–China conflict.

Taking into consideration modern trends in warfighting, the Ukrainian experience of building fighting power in the land-centric war, asymmetric characteristics of the potential conflict between Taiwan and China and the distinctive features of Taiwanese military geography and military capabilities, this paper arrived at five primary points for consideration. This is not an exhaustive list. However, these considerations provide opportunities to strengthen one’s readiness and resilience of fighting power in various warfighting scenarios.

The main points outlined in the paper include:

• Numerical superiority, artificial and critical mass
• Increased tempo of warfighting, innovation and adaptability
• Inter-state warfare can involve elements of manoeuvre as well as positional warfare – readiness for both is required to boost adaptability and survivability of one’s fighting power. Effective air-land integration to support both is essential.
• High-intensity land-centric warfare dictates the importance of the terrain
• People as an asymmetric advantage

This paper is part of a series of guest contributions on the lessons learned from the war in Ukraine, applicable to Taiwan. The research was made possible through a grant from the Taipei Representative Office in the Netherlands to the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS).

Author: Dr Viktoriya Fedorchak, Associate Senior Lecturer in War Studies, Department of War Studies, Swedish Defence University

Edited by Davis Ellison, Benedetta Girardi and Tim Sweijs.

• Paper 1 | Lessons Learned from the War in Ukraine Applicable to Taiwan: The Land Domain
• Paper 2 | Lessons for Taiwan from the Russo-Ukrainian War
• Paper 3 | The Maritime War in Ukraine: The Limits of Russian Sea Control?
• Paper 4 | Lessons Learned from the War in Ukraine Applicable to Taiwan: Airpower