“The satellite images showed a vast Russian convoy bogged down on the road to Kyiv.
Military experts said the 17-mile column, which more than doubled in size overnight on Monday, was a sitting duck for Ukrainian artillery and drone strikes. About 20 miles from where it was last spotted, the Russian advance appeared to have hit a wall.
In Bucha, 15 miles north-west of Kyiv, images posted online showed the bloody aftermath of one of the most brutal ambushes and firefights of the five-day-old war.
In Kyiv itself, Russian special forces troops were halted by guards at one of the city’s most famous religious landmarks. A photograph showed what appeared to be a Russian corpse lying close to St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, while the local orthodox archbishop issued a statement claiming the “saboteurs” had been “neutralised”.
As talks were taking place just across the border in Belarus, Russian troops faced being massacred on the roads into the capital. If Russians were being killed by church guards, the resistance could clearly be no pushover.” Telegraph
Comment: This convoy is a great mistake on the part of the Russian Army. The level of their incompetence has to be seen to be believed. This is mostly much needed logistical support for the spearheads. There is also a certain amount of artillery being brought forward to support prolonged operations in the Kiyiv area.
But, pilgrims, this very long column is stalled on a highway in a situation in which Russia DOES NOT have air supremacy. The vehicles and the largely conscripted troops are taking a lot of hits from armed drones, aircraft and artillery/mortars.
The vehicle mass will eventually reach the Kiyiv area but the mommies and daddies back home in Holy Russia are going to get an earful from their offspring who endured this trip down the highway from hell.
Meanwhile a large number of Ukrainian pilots are in Poland to receive aircraft donated by various European countries even as Javelin and Stingers are being rushed to Ukraine probably for overland delivery from Poland and Romania.
Jack Keane was on Fox today. He stressed the ability of the US to proceed in unacknowledged covert action with “volunteers” under a presidential “finding.” Well, turcopole pilgrims, someone should wake Joe up so that we can get on with it. pl
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/02/28/russias-17-mile-convoy-thwarted-road-kyiv/
The Rasputitsa, aka General Mud, is keeping them channelized into single columns on the roads. Ironic since it was a Russian Ally against the Wehrmacht. Perhaps Putin does not pay attention to his own history.
This look rather grim for the Russian offensive on Kiev. Why, oh why such a huge supply convoy in an area you don’t control fully including air cover?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/02/28/russias-17-mile-convoy-thwarted-road-kyiv/
Something happened on the way to Kiyve, I was bushwacked. Sorry, I cant believe it. Russians are neither stupid nor inexperienced. Their officers are pros. It is impossible they would have allowed such an important convoy to proceed unguarded against air and drone attack. I am not a military guy so I’ll ask a naive question and maybe someone can help. The press was full of pictures (the last two days) of citizens in Kiyve building IED’s. They pack a punch, are detonated remotely, and played havoc on our guys in Iraq. I assume they could have been used to help slow the Russian convoy. Were they?
Bill Roche
The convoy has not reached the city yet.
Bill Roche,
You’re falling for the old wives tale about the ten foot tall Soviet soldier. If the Russian Army was as professional and experienced as you think it is, they wouldn’t be running out of fuel and abandoning their combat vehicles. It appears the Russian planners of this operation believed all that ten foot tall hogwash and thought the Ukrainians would believe it too. I’m seeing about as many photos and videos of abandoned Russian vehicles as I’m seeing of destroyed vehicles.
I haven’t seen or heard of any IEDs yet beyond the molotov cocktails. They do work. We spent a day on them in IOBC light infantry track. We learned various ways how to make them and how to use them against stationary and moving Soviet equipment mock ups. The boldest employment I’ve seen was a video of a Ukrainian sedan hitting a Russian EW vehicle in a drive by fire bombing. Those kids got balls.
TTG,
Russians seem to do refit by echelon: if you don’t make objective, you don’t get resupplied. You get to wait around, hoping you get picked for the 4th echelon before you starve to death. The BN trains are waiting behind the 2nd echelon, if they have them.
What happened to all of the zampolit functions in the Russian army? Did they institute a continental-style staff organization?
It’s in doctrine – if vehicle malfunctions and slows a column dawn, you drop it.
I see that you are supposedly in St. Petersburg. Such doctrine may have been appropriate for the Soviet putative advance into western Europe, but it is cray in a situation in which you will have to operate with these forces on a sustained basis.
It seems all Telegraph pages are behind a paywall, are there other sources?
Jld,
Here is an archived link to the full article:
https://archive.fo/LNsoJ
There is a complete failure of intelligence on the part of the Russians. The whole world watched shipments of ATGMs flowing into Ukraine in the weeks leading to the war, yet they are unable to prevent their convoys from getting ambushed. No effective intelligence and land/air forces to clear the way.
Recent news items suggest there doesn’t appear to be a robust NCO culture within the Russian military. If this is the case their decision-making process may be top down heavy.
Lesley
The Russian Army is descended from the USSR Army which was descended from the Tsar’s Army. They have no tradition of a professional NCO corps except for staff specialists. The same is true of the IDF.
Able bodied Russian young men are too busy knocking off tourists in St Petersburg, than apply their skills in the Russian military. It became apparent on a visit a few years ago, they run a vast integrated criminal network – sizing up bootie and pigeons at one tourist spot, identifying tour buses, and then a later crew moves in for the kill at a later tour stop.
Are they really selling mass produced Russian water colors as starving artists on the streets, or are they sizing up who to have their network hit later on?
When you are visiting the elaborate Church of the Spilled Blood and notice packs of roving young men in the crowds, looking down to see what tourists are sporting (cameras, lenses, watches, cell phones, bags, or wallets in back pockets) when everyone else is looking up in awe.
Then you later see them sitting at entrances cell phones in hand passing off this gleaned information to the network, where the later hit occurs. You can’t help but recognize the talent and organizational skills that are misdirected in this country supporting this criminal enterprise.
So quickly they tried to move in on DH’s expensive zoom lens when he was trapped between two tour buses – I screamed stay away from him – and they fled, but not without first knowing how to instantly twist the lens to free it.
Complaints to the guide and tour bus driver were ignored and met with shrugs- they are probably in on it too. Chilling but realistic reminder about the perils of tourism in Russia today.
Head the stagecoach off at the pass, they are carrying gold. What is old, is new again.
Deap
You really get around
Market Garden redux?
Deap
Worse.
Deap,
Have you read Steinbeck’s The Moon is Down? I read it last in high school, but it came flooding back to me a few days ago. Russian occupation forces are going to get the same treatment as the invaders of Orden… that is if the Russians get that far. It’s no longer a certainty.
If the Russians have complete air superiority, are they at risk? I wouldn’t assume they’re stupid. If anything I’d suspect that they were bait.
EEngineer
They do not seem to have air superiority.
There is little direct evidence either way at this point. Between the fog of war at tight opsec by the Russian part, I have no idea what their actual losses are. But the indirect evidence points to a swift decapitation of the Ukrainian air force and air defenses. The Russians appear to be the ones driving the tempo of operations across the board. The apoplectic pronouncements out of all western media and official reactions also have a Bagdad Bob feel to them. That in itself is a huge tell.
EEngineer
The Ukrainian Air Force IS NOT decapitated.
ALL A lot of you are actual “surrender monkeys.”
There has been some poor planning on the part of the Russians, but maybe they have taken into some account Ukraine’s limitations in the air and accepted the costs that came with it.
Not to mention, Russia could find ways to retaliate that Ukraine (and her allies) might not want to risk yet. So far Russia’s response has been relatively measured (as far as invasions go). I get the sense both sides would like to keep things that way for now.
The “40-mile-long” supply convoy is being held up by blown bridges on the Irpin River: one close to Demysiv near where the river flows into the Dnieper & the other near Bucha/Irpin City about 12 miles to the south. The pictures coming out of Bucha are insane. It looks like the Irpin River is where Ukraine is making it’s stand. Now time for flanking maneuvers to attack that convoy, with light infantry if necessary.
https://twitter.com/WarrenPlatts/status/1498907348437544960