Russian weapons, tactics seen in Ukraine are shaping Myanmar’s civil war

Russia’s military mark being felt in Myanmar, from aircraft to waves of conscripts launching so-called ‘meat assaults’ made infamous in Ukraine.

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.

Moscow 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.