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Comment by jonstewart | Hacker News Reader

There’s a fair bit of talk (see Gen. Mark Hertling) that the column northwest of Kyiv is pretty FUBAR just with traffic jams and logistics, and so it doesn’t need a lot of attention at the moment. Ukrainian special forces have done a lot of damage at the head of the column, and I believe a bridge in the middle of/behind the column has been taken out, at least partially.

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It seems like a big juicy opportunity tho, would be great to take out all of that armor, it might not be stuck forever. I think the problem is that there are a huge amount of sams guarding that column and it would be risky to make a run against it with the few aircraft they have left.

If it's got logistical problems, taking it out means Russia stops trying to resupply it and shifts effort elsewhere.

If you are positioned to do a good job continuing to interfere with the resupply, that might be a favor to Russia, even though it might feel good.

The optimistic takes are stronger than „temporarily stuck“. It’s basically „in a position where nothing can move forward or backward“. The road is blocked, the vehicles are out of fuel, with many wrecks in between. Food is running out and, soon, the crews will have to abandon their vehicles. It becomes a 40-mile long mass of scrap metal.

If this turns out to be true, it's probably going to be remembered as one of the biggest blunders in military history.

In post ww2 I can't think of any.

If an author like Tom Clancy wrote this as a plot line in a fictional novel, nobody would believe it as possible. What modern military would be this incompetent. The stories would surely be a false flag to pull an attack. But nope, here we are in real life.

In other words, the state of Russian security is literally nothing but threat of nuclear war. What are the odds those would be as poorly functioning as the rest of the forces?

This might be a dumb question but… where are all of those soldiers expected to sleep? In the vehicles and/or outside in the freezing cold? How does that work? The logistics of feeding, housing, and bathroom needs, etc. for 40 miles of people.

Basically just one giant Russian Burning Man Festival. Not too bad. Ever been camping?

Absent provisions or a ride home it sounds more like Fyre!

In the back of the trucks huddled together. I’m guessing they have cold weather sleeping bags.

And not sideways, off the road, because of the mud.

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