Just watched, on German tv, Ukrainian drone footage of a Russian convoy in Mariupol coming under fire and being destroyed.
I was expecting to see tanks, or at least half-tracks, or at least military vehicles - but it was a "column" of three/four brightly-colored civilian vehicles (don't ask me to name the models!) that were shot up / blown up. They were led by a single identifiably military vehicle. So the Russians have been reduced to using (confiscated?) civilian vehicles? It's come to this?
Regards,
The Russians were already using ex-civilian trucks on the Kiev front IIRC.
It seems that the Russian Army was short of military trucks in any case, and its heavy losses during its attempt at mobile warfare didnt help.
This move is not unprecedented. The Germans did this in 1941 and later, confiscating civilian vehicles all over Europe. Israel did this in all its wars till 1973. The US contracted with Pakistani companies to supply forces in Afghanistan. Etc.