After four years of war, Russia has switched to a new tactic at the front. Small assault units, made up of only two or three soldiers, are exploiting weaknesses in Ukrainian defences, hoping for a slow, painful haemorrhage rather than a fatal blow.
The "thousand cuts" gambit became increasingly important over the course of 2025, and by last summer it had become the primary tactic used by Russian forces, said Erik Stijnman, a security expert at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael.
The manoeuvre is a revival of the Soviet-era stealth tactics used during World War II and adapted to the current conflict, said Veronika Hinman, a specialist on Russia and international relations at the University of Portsmouth.
The "thousand cuts" are inflicted by small groups of men who can successfully infiltrate Ukrainian territory. These are units staffed with two or three troops who escape the vigilance of Ukrainians, said Stijnman. These units rarely exceed 10 combatants since the objective is to be as discreet as possible.
The micro-units have "achieved tactical gains in key cities such as Kupiansk and Pokrovsk", according to the Atlas Institute for International Affairs, a US-based think tank.
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Testing – and exhausting – Ukrainian defences
Russian forces began successfully breaching Ukrainian defence lines in Pokrovsk with small groups of combatants in November 2025. The Ukrainian army was forced to withdraw. Russia finally announced the capture of Pokrovsk, a key city in the Donetsk region, though the Ukrainians claim they still control part of the city.
Russia is trying to replicate this method along the front line.
"The goal is to find gaps using a small number of people and then send in the infantry afterwards," said Hinman.
Russian soldiers usually infiltrate using thermal sheeting or tents, which they hold away from their bodies with handles. They attempt to advance as close to Ukrainian forces as possible, to check their positions and test their strength, according to an October 2025 report from the Royal United Services Institute.
If the Russian soldiers can kill any Ukrainian troops during their missions, even better. But even if the Russian side is losing more men than Ukraine during these operations, they are more capable of absorbing the losses, said Stijnman.
The "thousand cuts" method does not necessarily lead to territorial gains for the Russian side.
Instead, it represents a significant shift in the army’s mentality, moving away from the traditional desire for a "dramatic hammer blow" to "low glamour, high persistence" approach, said Will Kingston-Cox, a Russia specialist at the International Team for the Study of Security Verona.
The approach is really a "poor man’s strategy", Stijnman said, in the absence of the ability to "actually make a breakthrough".
"The omnipresence of drones on the front" also accounts for the use of the tactic, said Hinman. Large groups of troops are easier to detect with drones and then target with artillery strikes, said Kingston-Cox.
A tactic to draw out the war
Russia’s war against Ukraine is a war of attrition, and this modus operandi "allows Russia to draw out the conflict" to its advantage, said Stijnman. Moscow wants the war to last until it achieves a decisive victory; the numerous incursions across Ukrainian defence lines force the Ukrainians to react and drains their munitions.
The tactic is also politically advantageous for Moscow. Photos of Russian soldiers waving their flag in the middle of Ukrainian villages began to appear in the summer of 2025, making it appear like Russia had taken control of these territories.
But the incursions don’t last. Ukraine just removes the Russian flags on its territory once no one remains to defend them.
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Yet as peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia falter, the images give the impression that Russians are advancing and are therefore in a position of strength. Such photos "give the impression that Russia is gaining ground", said Stijnman.
"It’s a great propaganda tool" for Russian forces, Hinman agreed.
Ukraine is beginning to adapt. The army is using technological solutions, like terrestrial drones along its front lines, to reduce human losses tied to these incursions, said Stijnman.
Furthermore, "Ukraine has intensified its strikes deep in Russian territory against Russian [energy] and military infrastructure to make the war of attrition just as painful for Moscow," Kingston-Cox said.
The thousands of "cuts" inflicted by Russia are, nevertheless, leaving scars on the Ukrainian war effort.
This article was adapted from the original in French.
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