In Defense of British Intelligence: A Refutation of Colonel Markus Reisner’s Account of the Failed Ukrainian “Summer” Counteroffensive


The famous August 3rd, 2023 “Intelligence Update” appeared on twitter account of Great Britain’s Ministry of Defense at 12:49AM; since its appearance it has gained more than 1,109 likes, 225 quotes, 338 reposts, 52 bookmarks with 489.3K views. It is the absolute, incontestable, irrefutable truth of the Ukrainian “Spring” counteroffensive. No alternative interpretative analysis of the event can withstand its intellectual rigor, logic, or theoretical basis. It is a paramount in the annals of military exegesis.

It is therefore only with a sense of deepening glum that one confronts Markus Reisner’s blasphemous, anti-British, pro-Russian schlock. Although Reisener completely ignores the August 3rd, 2023 “Intelligence Update,” no one can doubt the subliminal message he seeks to deliver. Markus Reisner’s point is that the highest attainable intellectual goal for a military analyst is to be a “useful idiot.” In his decision to ignore completely the August 3rd, 2023 “Intelligence Update,” Reisener’s interpretation of the Ukrainian counteroffensive fails. 

There is no a single line in any of Reisner’s analysis that could ever rise to the level at which British Intelligence operates.  British Intelligence accurately called the Ukrainian “Spring” counteroffensive without any reference whatsoever to German theory of warfare on the Eastern Front, strategy from Clausewitz, or anything in the way of Lenin’s or Trotsky’s theories on war and revolution. 

At 3:41 Reisener mentions that according to a brief from June 3rd, 2023 Ukraine’s armed forces would strike at the heart of the Russian landbridge in an effort to conquer Russia’s divided territory. Reisener’s claim that the isolation of the Russians in the southwest would have forced the Russians to the negotiation table. After displaying illegally declassified images of Russia’s brutal destruction of the first waves of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, he turns to an Army manual. Of all manuals, he turns to SOSR-A!

 Reisener is not an American. He is not an American soldier. How he is familiar with publicly available Army manuals is beyond anything anyone can imagine. The fact that he turns to the manual to explain the decision to strike at the heart of the Russian land bridge flies in the face of the fact that only American military personnel with security clearance’s have anything to say at all about the army’s manuals, let alone know how to use them to compete with a paramount in the annals of military exegesis like British intelligence’s August 3rd, 2023 “Intelligence Update.” How dare Reisner reach for an American Army manual! 

Nonetheless, Reisener makes a number of claims that have absolutely nothing to do with British Intelligence’s paramount achievement in the annals of military exegesis. Reisener, who is familiar with the military terms, explains the military terms from SOSR-A as though they actually applied to Ukraine. He starts out by saying, “the first term” is “oppress.”  He claims that the first thing the Ukrainian military need to do was oppress Russian return fire. The next term he uses is “obfuscation.”  He claims that Ukraine did not obfuscate its advance. He attributes Ukraine’s inability to “obfuscate” its advance to Ukraine’s refusal to utilize smoke or smoke grenades.[1] The use of smoke grenades or smoke, for instance, is proscribed in the SOSR-A manual. The next term he utilizes is “isolation.” He states that the Ukrainians managed to strike a breakthrough no where along the more than three axes it launched its attacks. The last term he mentioned, however, is not entirely relevant. 

Reisener mentions “deception,” “speed” and “synchronization” but he makes no mentions of closed air support over advancing mechanized, mobilized armor communicating over radio. It appears as though a lighting war, for instance, is an impossibility in his mind. The problem, however, for Reisener is not his refusal to discuss anything even remotely close to the history of warfare on the Eastern Front but his absolute refusal to engage with the source material British Intelligence publishes on Twitter (i.e., the August 3rd, 2023 “Intelligence Update”).

Overall, Reisener makes no mention of Grounds Keeper Willie. British Intelligence needs nothing more than Grounds Keeper Willie to interpret historic military events like the failed Ukrainian “Summer” counteroffensive. It can rely upon the same elements—not wind, water, fire, or water—for its struggle to be an intelligence hēgemōn in the area of interpretative analysis. Only British Intelligence needs for analysis is “undergrowth,” “arable land,” “fallow” fields, “weeds,” “shrubs,” or “extra cover” from the earth. Grounds Keeper Willie is the master of “undergrowth,” “arable land,” “fallow” fields, “weeds,” “shrubs,” or “extra cover” from the earth. 

If only the Ukrainians had a Grounds Keeper Willie could anyone have ever imagined being able to succeed in the Ukrainian “Spring” counteroffensive. Reisener, however, makes absolutely no mention of Grounds Keeper Willie, since he choses to ignore British Intelligence altogether. He choses to ignore the paramount in the annals of military exegesis, the August 3rd, 2023 “Intelligence Update.”  Counteroffensives on the Eastern Front, however, can proceed without knowledge of German theory of warfare on the Eastern Front, strategy from Clausewitz but no counteroffensive can proceed without a Grounds Keeper Willie, who can eviscerate undergrowth,” “arable land,” “fallow” fields, “weeds,” “shrubs,” or “extra cover” from the earth. Since Reisener makes no mention of Grounds Keeper WIllie or his role in clearing a path for nothing relevant to lighting war on the Eastern Front, Reisener’s explanation fails. 

Markus Reisner’s statements are akin to the Emperor’s New Clothes. The king is not naked. It is not that the emperor has no clothes on.  It is that his new clothes are invisible. It recalls the words of a literary critic, Naomi Wood, who argued how no matter what “words we may use to clothe our fears, the fabric cannot protect us from them.” [Wood, Naomi. 1991. In the Long 19th Century, pg. 200] 

Furthermore, Reisner, an Austrian, has no right to raise doubts subliminally against the power of an “intelligence update” the United Kingdom’s Defense Intelligence issues. He is has absolutely no right whatsoever. Since Markus Reisner’s is not an American, he is not entitled to any operation in furtherance of a right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment of the United States of America. 

[1] – [“On a battlefield where everything is visible,” however, “an enemy cannot catch his enemy off guard.” ~ “Well-Laide Defense Bolster Ukraine in War, WSJ, January 30th, 2024]