> the very least they should have done was evacuate the civilians and put some units on standby nearby to absorb the initial push. remember the ukrainians were just humvee rushing before deploying armored reinforcements, these could have easily been ambushed. ok let's pretend that you are general belgasimov. you have a quiet frontline stretching for ~700km with mostly nothing much critical near it, just pig farms and wheat fields. how many units do you stage along the border that can ambush and stop (assuming you want to stop) a 3 brigade thundooring push... and... very importantly, how far back do you stage them and how do you protect them from 20 seasons of vog drop: the russian border?
India