Ukrainian Armed Forces use Islamist tactics of hiding behind civilians: Ex-Pentagon official

New Delhi, March 6: The Ukrainian military is resorting to the methods of Middle Eastern extremists and using civilians as human shield, former adviser to the US Secretary of Defense, Colonel Douglas McGregor told Fox Business. According to McGregor, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky needs to recognize the "inevitability" of the defeat of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and accept Moscow's conditions so as not to expose "a huge number of his population to unnecessary risk".

The Ukrainian military is using Islamist tactics in the cities, while Russian troops, on the contrary, are trying not to damage the infrastructure, he said. "Ukrainian troops are hiding in populated areas because they have no mobility, no air defense, no air cover, no logistical infrastructure. Now they are mixing with the civilian population," RT News quoted the retired military official as saying.

"We have seen this in the Middle East. When we defeated the Islamists, they fled to the cities, used people, civilians, as human shields and tried to avoid destruction. And I think that is exactly what is happening today: the Ukrainian army is using the population to avoid defeat."

At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin is "doing his best" to keep most of Ukraine intact. Moreover, in the first days of the special operation, the Russian army even acted "too softly", he added. "Frankly, surprisingly little damage. The damage is much less than what we inflicted on Iraq when we sent troops there in 1991, and then in 2003," McGregor noted.