Russian Army’s Quiet Fatal Flaw: No Sergeants

Issues of corruption, poor logistics and inept leadership overshadow a critical hole in the Russian lines: Few NCOs to keep the troops fighting

Of all the post-invasion excuses given for the Russian army’s failures in Ukraine—corruption, bad logistics, poor execution of a bad idea—the most obvious one, to me, has gotten short shrift: The Russian army has virtually no sergeants— or as retired Army Gen. Mark Hertling put it to me recently, “no functioning NCO corps.”

Russian troops drilling on eve…