A Russian military vehicle burns next to a soldier's body in Kharkiv, Ukraine, February 27, 2022. (Sergey Bobok/AFP)
The Russian military’s initial invasion of Ukraine has been a surprising strategic and tactical blunder marked by food and fuel shortages, abandoned armored vehicles, aircraft losses and troop deaths, US experts say.
US specialists who study the Russian military say they have been astonished by the mismanagement of the campaign, which has seen invading columns stalled, apparently hundreds of Russian armored vehicles lost, and the Ukrainians preventing the Kremlin’s air force from controlling the skies.
“If you were going to screw it up two or three weeks in, I might understand it,” says Scott Boston, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corp. think tank.
“But if you, like, tripped over the doorframe on the way into the house, you have another issue,” he says.
Members of the civil defense take positions as a vehicle approaches the checkpoint in Gorenka, outside the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP/Vadim Ghirda)
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