I’m surprised Vlad let them get away with this. The old Vlad would have turned that convoy into the road to Basra scene. Must be getting soft in his old age. Time to put him out to pasture the hard liners are probably thinking.
There could be multiple reasons - all speculation for now:
1. He didn’t have the available forces - the Russian air farce may be as moth-eaten as the Russian Navy
2. The troops didn’t want to
3. He was overruled
4. He didn’t want to spill Russian blood
Any one of these is plausible, or there may be another reason. We’ll probably never know for certain