How Russia's 35-mile armoured convoy ended in failure

BBC News ^ | Feb 22, 2023 | Claire Press and Svitlana Libet

[MinorityRepublican]

Three days into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a huge 10-mile (15.5km) line of armoured vehicles was spotted by a satellite in the north of the country. The very same morning in Bucha, just outside Kyiv, 67-year-old Volodymyr Scherbynyn was standing outside his local supermarket when more than a hundred Russian military vehicles rolled into town. Both Volodymyr and the satellite were witnesses to a key part of President Vladimir Putin's plan for a quick and overwhelming victory. They were also witnesses to its failure.

The western media called it a convoy. In reality, it was a traffic jam and a major tactical blunder. Forty-eight hours after that first satellite photograph, on 28 February 2022, the line of vehicles had grown to a colossal 35 miles (56 km) long. The vehicles were stalled for weeks. Then finally they retreated, and seemingly disappeared overnight.

What happened? Why did such a massive force fail to reach Kyiv?

A BBC team spoke to dozens of witnesses; including military personnel, national and international intelligence services, civilians, veterans, and the territorial defence, all of whom came into contact with the convoy. It also gained access to Russian maps and documents that shed light on what the plan actually was, and why it went so spectacularly wrong.

[LeoWindhorse]

Some Russians resist

https://youtu.be/ImE_fNTXN34

[kiryandil]

“Mariupol”

[Tupelo]

I have a question about BBC news.
Is it as reliable as, say NBC news?
Or CNN?
Or Fox?
Or MSNBC?

Please, I honestly do not know.

[canuck_conservative]

"However, Putin's secrecy came at a cost. So successful was his deception, even most of his commanders did not receive their orders until 24 hours before the invasion.

On a tactical level, this left them vulnerable. They lacked food, fuel and maps. They were without proper communication tools. They had insufficient ammunition. They were even ill-prepared for the winter weather.

Kitted out with the wrong tyres and surrounded by snow, the Russians drove straight into a mud bath. Civilians close to Ivankiv describe Russian soldiers telling Ukrainian farmers to help pull their tanks out of the sludge.

Unable to progress, the Russian vehicles needed to divert to paved roads in order to avoid soft ground, forcing thousands to group into a single column.

But with limited communication between the battalions, they almost immediately converged into one almighty traffic jam...."

[Jewbacca]

To start with, it was 35 miles long.

They should have had 120 little convoys in the days of drones and precision artillery.

[Codeflier]

I think it was a planned bluff. The hope was that such a display would cause immediate capitulation. I don’t think it was ever intended to be utilized. Other real plans were put in place in case it didn’t have the intended affect.

In essence, it was similar to football, when an offense lines up on 4th and 3 and tries to get the defense to jump offsides, before eventually punting.

[rfp1234]

That’s an awful lot of rust to accumulate in one year. Old photo from 2014?

[lewislynn]

I recall my brief time in the US Army (served in Viet Nam) whenever you were in a large group...you know, like 35 miles long, we always remembered “one round will kill all of us”. So we avoided being in large groups. We were funny that way.

[Codeflier]

There is something very fishy about that picture for sure.

[Magnum44]

This news story leaves me laughing....at stupid Russians 🤣

[Stingray51]

“...was spotted by a satellite...”

I suppose they mean ‘was spotted by American satellite the information from which was immediately provided by the Americans to the Ukranians so it could be used to kill Russians’. Apart from whether ones or disagrees with American policy, I think it is important for the public to understand exactly what that policy is and what it means in practical terms.

[canuck_conservative]

don’t think Ukraine managed to capture that much Russian equipment in 2014, it was pretty one-sided then ...

unlike now ...

[sloanrb]

Honestly, I don’t.

It looks to me that Putin was attempting a “100 hours to Baghdad” to decapitate the Ukrainian government and install his own puppet. A few sham elections later and the Ukraine and the Donbas areas would overwhelmingly vote for close ties to Russia. In one fell swoop Putin would achieve his objective and prove that Russia is equal if not superior to NATO and the US.

The problem is that decades of corruption hollowed out the military. Plus Russia never ran exercises beforehand. It was if Putin believed his own propaganda.

Disclaimer, I am just an armchair general.

[GingisK]

Rust on steel parts that have been in a fire is pretty heavy following the very first rain.

[Timber Rattler]

10 BTGs...on a single road!

Who planned that attack? Oleg the Clown?

[McGruff]

Maybe they just wanted to send Zelensky a message. We can be at the gates of Kiev if we wanted to. Notice Ukraine never attacked this sitting duck 17 mile column.

[discostu]

So short answer: they never read A Bridge Too Far and didn’t actually understand local terrain before making the plan.

[PGR88]

some sources have said that while Russian paratroops had seized the large Antonov airport at Hostomel just outside Kiev, they couldn’t hold it, and after a second assault, the damage caused then made it worthless for rapid deployments

It was meant to be the base for an quick strike on Kiev Government HQ

Also, by the end of the first week, Ukraine had started to incorporate US satellite and intelligence into its operations and targeting.

[existentially_kuffer]

Russia’s military genius on world display, duh!