The "convoy" north of Kyiv is a disaster in the making for the Russian Army, for several reasons:
1. Fuel. Military vehicles consume extraordinary amounts of it. Tanks get about 3 gallons to a mile (that's not a misprint) Even stopped, military vehicles have to keep their engines running, to recharge batteries, to keep weapons systems active, and to keep vehicle occupants from freezing to death. The situation will quickly consume any fuel stocks in the convoy. And, since the convoy occupies/blocks the road, no new fuel can be brought in. Any fuel trucks trying to operate off-road will bog down.
2. Deployment. Unless the Russians were absolutely brilliant about convoy order, this is nothing but a 40 mi. hodgepodge of heterogenous military units, each with its own orders about how to get to Kyiv, and each under a different commander. Necessary support units like engineers and bridgebuilders are snarled in the mess, unable to get forward (the Ukrainians have blown the bridges the convoy has to use). At the end of their travel, this conglomeration will have to sort itself out into discrete commands and form up for battle, while under fire. Good luck.
3. Readiness. Every day troops and tanks sit waiting degrades their usefulness. What we are seeing is a 40 mi. stretch of starving, freezing, and sleep-deprived soldiers. Further, they were in bad shape when they started; they had just finished three days of maneuvers with Belorussian troops; they were tired, hungry, and worn before they even crossed the Ukrainian border. Modern armored vehicles require an extraordinary amount of maintenance; modern tanks usually require an hour of maintenance for every hour in the field. They are probably now suffering a high rate of breakdowns.
4. Loss of initiative. Stalled convoys are an opponent's dream, easily taken apart and destroyed. In convoy, these forces cannot maneuver; and maneuver is essential in modern combat. Undoubtedly, the Ukrainians are starting to pick off those vehicles one by one. This happened in the Finnish-Soviet Winter War, where the Finnish sliced Soviet military convoys into smaller and smaller sections ("motti", islands), and destroyed them in detail.
The huge convoy north of Kyiv is an invitation to a Russian disaster. Unable to move, deploy, and resupply, running out of provisions, the convoy is a target far more than a threat.
The "convoy" north of Kyiv is a disaster in the making for the Russian Army, for several reasons:
1. Fuel. Military vehicles consume extraordinary amounts of it. Tanks get about 3 gallons to a mile (that's not a misprint) Even stopped, military vehicles have to keep their engines running, to recharge batteries, to keep weapons systems active, and to keep vehicle occupants from freezing to death. The situation will quickly consume any fuel stocks in the convoy. And, since the convoy occupies/blocks the road, no new fuel can be brought in. Any fuel trucks trying to operate off-road will bog down.
2. Deployment. Unless the Russians were absolutely brilliant about convoy order, this is nothing but a 40 mi. hodgepodge of heterogenous military units, each with its own orders about how to get to Kyiv, and each under a different commander. Necessary support units like engineers and bridgebuilders are snarled in the mess, unable to get forward (the Ukrainians have blown the bridges the convoy has to use). At the end of their travel, this conglomeration will have to sort itself out into discrete commands and form up for battle, while under fire. Good luck.
3. Readiness. Every day troops and tanks sit waiting degrades their usefulness. What we are seeing is a 40 mi. stretch of starving, freezing, and sleep-deprived soldiers. Further, they were in bad shape when they started; they had just finished three days of maneuvers with Belorussian troops; they were tired, hungry, and worn before they even crossed the Ukrainian border. Modern armored vehicles require an extraordinary amount of maintenance; modern tanks usually require an hour of maintenance for every hour in the field. They are probably now suffering a high rate of breakdowns.
4. Loss of initiative. Stalled convoys are an opponent's dream, easily taken apart and destroyed. In convoy, these forces cannot maneuver; and maneuver is essential in modern combat. Undoubtedly, the Ukrainians are starting to pick off those vehicles one by one. This happened in the Finnish-Soviet Winter War, where the Finnish sliced Soviet military convoys into smaller and smaller sections ("motti", islands), and destroyed them in detail.
The huge convoy north of Kyiv is an invitation to a Russian disaster. Unable to move, deploy, and resupply, running out of provisions, the convoy is a target far more than a threat.