Posted on 04/03/2022 1:05:00 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Ambushed convoys and broken tanks. Generals killed close to the front. Expired rations. Frostbite. The Russian military was built for quick and overwhelming firepower, experts say, but its weakness is logistics. And on the roads of Ukraine a month after the first invasion, that weakness is showing.
‘The tyranny of distance’
Many analysts say the Russians assumed they would quickly capture the capital city of Kyiv and force President Volodymyr Zelensky out of power. Whatever the strategy, that outcome did not happen, and Russia has been bedeviled by an inability to keep supplies flowing to troops in a longer ground war.
After weeks of little success except in southeastern Ukraine, despite relentless shelling and thousands of military and civilian casualties, Moscow said during peace negotiations on Tuesday that it would “drastically reduce” military activity in the northern part of the country, near Kyiv and Chernihiv.
After a surprisingly fierce Ukrainian resistance, “we can suspect” that Russians “did not properly organize the logistics necessary for an effective Plan B, which was to have an actual, serious fight in what is the largest country in Europe outside of Russia,” said Michael Kofman, director of Russia studies at CNA, a think tank in Virginia.
The sheer size of Ukraine is a problem.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Yeah because when I want to know about world events, especially military in nature, I turn to the Washington Post.
Russia has lost.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on potential Russia/Ukraine escalation in 2015
Russia hasn’t given up, but their strange multiple front attempts have stalled. Expect they will recover momentum when they try something simpler. Russia still sells gas, it still gets money on the world market.
Ukraine should be resupplying their military munitions for what will come when Russia tries again.
no no, just wait for the Putin shills to explain that everything is going according to plan
see, Russia amassed 70,000 troops so it could only advance 50 km into Ukraine over 5 weeks, and all the vast personnel and equipment losses incurred were deliberately planned
there’s no retreat here! Oh those brilliant Russian war planners!!
Paid trolls in Moscow and/or St. Petersburg?
“An army moves on its stomach.”- Napoleon
So says the Washington Compost! A really reliable unbiased news source\sarc.
LOL! The lying scum at WP.
Hostomel airport was to supply the “logistics” for the attack on Kiev but the attempt to take it failed.
In other areas the Russians logistics aren’t optimum but they’re par.
Ukrainians are doing a good job. Hope it’s enough.
My wife just heard on the Taiwan news that Putin has poisoned a number of rich guys and ??? whoever else was opposing him in Russia. Have no idea if this is true or not.
If it is true it shows Putin will not stop at anything to achieve his goals.
In retrospect, it now appears that Russia's partial encirclement of Kiev was a feint to draw Ukrainian forces to its defense while Russia fixed the bulk of the UKR Army along a broad front on the eastern frontier. For the past month, Russian aviation and missiles have systematically degraded Ukraine's military infrastructure to the point that Kiev may now lack the fuel, mobility and aviation support to reinforce its forces now "fixed" in the Donbass. With the Kiev feint no longer needed, those "stalled columns" that many claimed were "retreating" from Kiev now appear to be racing eastward to encircle UKR forces in the Donbass region. If this is the case, the stage is being set for a decisive battle in eastern Ukraine.
I agree with your assessment and this explains one of the reasons why the Russians hit that big military fuel depot.
Corruption. Its hard for an army to accomplish its mission, when every soldier is trying to enrich himself. Russian vehicles retreating were loaded with Ukrainian stolen items instead of military gear.
A Russian supply truck was destroyed in #Kyiv Oblast a couple of days ago. Curiously, however, it was loaded with washing machines.
Blitzkrieg didn’t work?
“experts say”, “many analysts say” - well, you can’t get any more authoritative than that! We don’t even have to wait for “some say” or the Politifact factchecker to weigh in.
Why should they not try to enrich themselves when the commander above them is doing it?
This is what command at every level thinks all the way up to Putin.
The only problem with that theory, is that Russian units that were in that "feint" were mauled and will require some time to refit.
“Russian units withdrawn from northeastern Ukraine for redeployment to eastern Ukraine are heavily damaged,” @TheStudyofWar says. “Russian forces likely require an extensive operational pause to refit existing units in Donbas”
This. Putin wants and independent Donbas and a land bridge to Russian Crimea. "De-Nazification" means he needs to wipe out Azov Battalion, who do not take orders from Zelenski and would not recognize any surrender of Donbas territories to Russia.
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