Re: I know it can't be done
I suspect that is because those analysts see things from a western point of view. Everything is sanitized from the air, or in a desert!!!!!
No. It was misplaced faith in the Russian army. Which has been on a major modernisation binge for the last fifteen years.
Anyone who looks at a potential invasion of Ukraine was going to instantly compare to WWII. Which is obviously where a lot of the fighting was. And one of the big things you learn, when you study that history is the mud. For example, it wasn't the snow that stopped the Germans from capturing Moscow in 1941. It was the mud. They had to halt the attack in October until the snow really kicked in, the ground froze and they were able to move again. Although by that point they were at the end of their logistical tether and the Soviets had brought in yet more reserves. Otherwise you were just limited to road and rail transport. And in the case of the Germans their rail logistics didn't get them much past Smolensk.
That's why one of the Russian words that anyone who's read about WWII on the Eastern Front knows is Rasputitsa. Which is the two "mud seasons" they get due to Autumn rains, and then in Spring when all the snow melts (plus rain). Which is probably why the advances from Crimea are going very well, but the advances in the North are so slow and their logistics so screwed up. There's only so many trucks you can get down the roads - and that's without the enemy shooting at you. Or what looks like large numbers of mechanical breakdowns caused by bad maintenance practises from the Russian army over the last few years.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
