Experts Explain Embarrassing Reason Russian Convoy is Stalled Near Kyiv
The sheer number of blunders that we’ve witnessed from the Russian army during their incursion into Ukraine is baffling, to say that least. This was supposed to be one of the most advanced militaries in the entire world, feared by all but the Americans due to their technological development, their size, and their purported ruthlessness.
The reality on the ground is much different than our previous impressions, however, as crying, teen-aged Russian soldiers are calling their moms on camera from Ukrainian detention sites, and as the people of Ukraine continue to easily thwart many of the major advances of this fighting force.
Furthermore, a massive Russian convoy set to take the capital of Kyiv has now been stalled for 3 days on the road, and experts believe that it is for an embarrassing reason.
Trent Telenko, a retired Pentagon staff specialist and military history blogger, suggests another big reason may be Russia’s tires, as he explained in a long, illustrated Twitter thread based on photos of deserted Russian Pantsir-S1 wheeled gun-missile systems and his own experience as a U.S. Army vehicle auditor. “When you leave military truck tires in one place for months on end,” the sidewalls get brittle in the sun and fail like the tires on the Pantsir-SR, he wrote. “No one exercised that vehicle for one year.”
Others agreed.
Karl Muth, an economist, government adviser, and self-described “tire expert,” jumped in, agreeing with Telenko but adding some details about the tires.
“There is a huge operational level implication in this,” Telenko said. “If the Russian Army was too corrupt to exercise a Pantsir-S1, they were too corrupt to exercise the trucks and wheeled [armored fighting vehicles] now in Ukraine,” meaning “the Russians simply cannot risk them off-road during the Rasputitsa/mud season.” That is a problem for the convoy in the north, he added. “The Crimea is a desert and the South Ukrainian coastal areas are dryer. So we are not seeing this there. But elsewhere the Russians have a huge problem for the next 4 to 6 weeks.”
The interesting and informative Twitter thread can be seen below:
This is a thread that will explain the implied poor Russian Army truck maintenance practices based on this photo of a Pantsir-S1 wheeled gun-missile system's right rear pair of tires below & the operational implications during the Ukrainian mud season.🧵
— Trent Telenko (@TrentTelenko) March 2, 2022
