Russian-supplied airpower, intelligence and battlefield tactics drawn from its war in Ukraine are helping Myanmar’s military government turn the tide in a civil war now entering its sixth year.China wields the greatest influence over Myanmar’s generals as well as the powerful ethnic armed groups based along the lengthy China-Myanmar border, but Russian-made jets, helicopters and drones have handed the military a decisive battlefield edge.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listMoscow has emerged as the Myanmar regime’s most important defence partner, according to Ian Storey, senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and author of the book Putin’s Russia and Southeast Asia.Storey told Al Jazeera that Russian weapons in the hands of Myanmar’s military have been used to “devastating effect” against not just rebel targets but civilian sites, including schools and hospitals.“The death toll has been appalling,” he said.Beyond technology and equipment, the generals also appear to have adopted Russia’s so-called “meat assaults” tactics – waves of infantry thrown at enemy defensive lines with little regard for casualties, Storey said.Nationwide conscription, introduced in 2024, has reportedly swollen Myanmar’s army ranks by nearly 100,000 soldiers, providing the human cannon fodder such tactics demand and which first came to attention in Russia’s war of attrition in Ukraine.“The junta has copied Russian tactics, using conscripted soldiers in human wave attacks against rebel forces,” Storey said. Myanmar’ …
