Failure has been suffered time and time again by the Russian colonisers of Ukraine. The so-called 2nd best army in the world is critically suffering a major blow to its reputation, and its outright military prowess in battle. The Kremlin’s decision to launch an offensive against its sovereign neighbour is receiving severe condemnation and perhaps bitter internal rue.
On the world stage, Russia’s military is now continuing to be seen as a force that is incapable of rapid urban warfare, with the siege of the 02 largest Ukrainian cities being ongoing for several days while the Russian forces are yet to spell victory. Ukrainian counter-offensives and sheer patriotic defence are winning the day against its barbaric neighbouring warlords.
Russia is now in a militaristic position of strategic failure where the nation is yet to secure key Ukrainian cities, which are still functional under the Zelensky-led government. With extremely long delays in terms of securing strategic factors in Ukraine, Russia deployed a more-than 40-mile long military convoy towards the capital, Kyiv. However, emerging reports suggest that the convoy is now facing an ‘enormously large traffic jam’ in Ukrainian territory – a testament to failing Russian operational management in the military.
Russian military convoys including tanks, trucks, armoured vehicles and UTVs were considerably delayed due to the lack of access to fuel, food and other requirements. Though a minute factor in the larger picture of war, the lack of fuel has left Russia in an embarrassing situation, and its military vehicles and troops easy-pickings for Ukrainian soldiers who have set fire to dozens if not hundreds of vehicles and captured multiple Russian forces.
With expectations of temperature levels to fall steeply in Ukraine in the near future, the Russian troops involved in the 65-kilometre long convoy of tanks could literally freeze to death. The lack of fuel results in the inability to use engine power which essentially makes the battle tank one gigantic refrigerator for the troops inside, which could be fatal. Glen Grant, a senior defence expert at the Baltic Security Foundation stated, “the boys won’t wait, they will get out, start walking to the forest, and give themselves up to avoid freezing to death”
How could such a devastating error occur to one of the most prominent militaries in the world? Does this mean that Russia is just an exaggerated force of severe military incompetencies or is it simply no match for the defiant Ukrainian spirit?
Not only is fuel the issue, but also the inability of the Russian defence forces to protect their own high ranking officials. Sources evidenced that Russian Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky, deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army, was shot dead by a Ukrainian sniper last week, making the Major General the highest-ranking member of the Russian military to be killed in the invasion.
When research on the cause of the higher numerical losses of the Russian high-ranking officers, it was found that the lack of progress by Russia is requiring its generals and commanders to move forward closer to the battlefield in Ukraine, thus resulting in the higher possibility for fatal strikes. Usually, commanders would not be on the frontline as they are directing operations, but one official said, “My assessment would be that those commanders have been killed because they’ve had to go further and closer to the front”. “That’s an indication of some degree of frustration and some degree of lack of progress, and they’re trying to impose their sort of personality on the battlefield and putting themselves at personal risk”, he continued.
It is clear that Russia is losing the battle as of now. If its military switches the invasion into a war of attrition, it would have already lost due to the inability to mount strategically superior tactics but rather just resort to numerical power to win against the Ukrainian defenders.
