Russian troops, due to low morale, as well as lack of fuel and food, surrender en masse or sabotage their vehicles to avoid a fight with the Ukrainians.
This was stated by a senior Pentagon official in a New York Times commentary.
“Entire Russian units laid down their arms without a fight, faced with unexpectedly tough Ukrainian defenses,” the official said.
He added that a significant part of the Russian troops are young conscripts who are poorly trained and poorly prepared for an all-out assault. And in some cases, Russian troops deliberately punched holes in the gas tanks of their vehicles, presumably to avoid combat.
The Pentagon official declined to say how the US military made those estimates or how widespread these failures might be over the vast battlefield. The estimates are presumably based on a mosaic of intelligence data, including testimonies from captured Russian soldiers and intercepted communications.
Taken together, however, these factors may help explain why Russian forces, including the ominous 60km column of tanks and armored vehicles heading towards Kiev, have come to a virtual halt over the past few days.
In addition to the lack of fuel, food and spare parts, the Russian commanders leading this armored column to Kiev may be regrouping and rethinking their battle plans, making adjustments on the fly to pick up the pace for what US intelligence and military officials say will inevitably lead to encirclement and, ultimately, the capture of the capital in the next few days.
“They have a lot of power,” the Pentagon official said.
He added that 80% of the more than 150,000 Russian troops concentrated on the borders of Ukraine have already joined the battle.
It is noted that American analysts were amazed at the risky behavior of such large forces of the Russian Federation.
The Russian air force has yet to gain air superiority over Ukraine, a Pentagon official said, as Russian jets have faced resistance from Ukrainian fighter jets and a powerful air defense system, from shoulder-launched Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to much more powerful anti-aircraft weapons.
Another official, this time from Europe, believes that Russian troops leaving Belarus have encountered logistical problems.
In the run-up to the invasion, American and British intelligence raised questions about the supply chain for Russian troops in Belarus. The publication, referring to independent analysts, writes that during the military exercises, some Russian soldiers received insufficient food and fuel. US officials then told the Allies that the Russians had fixed those problems by mid-February, one of the reasons Western warnings of an invasion intensified in the middle of last month.
However, the challenges faced by the Russian forces show that their supply chain logistics have not been fully resolved.
Logistical disruptions could help explain the presence of a long, slow-moving convoy of military vehicles heading towards Kiev, a tactical setback that represents a key target for the Ukrainian military, a European official said.
Russian officials, the European official said, expected to be able to secure air supremacy, at least in the Kyiv region. But the fact that Ukrainian air defense systems are still operational has endangered both the Russian planes and the equipment convoy.
