After a massive Russian military transport column got stuck in its own traffic jam, while moving to Kyiv, experts of military analysis have evaluated that Russian forces were gradually overcoming its logistics problems and could be able to mount an assault on the Ukrainian capital this week, The Guardian reports.
US NGO thinktank Institute for the Study of War stated on Monday, March 7, that Russian forces were now «concentrating in the eastern, north-western and western outskirts of Kyiv» in preparation for an «assault on the capital in the coming 24-96 hours».
Its success, the thinktank added, would depend in part on how effectively Russian troops had been able to «resupply, reorganise and plan» after an initial invasion that experts believe fell apart due to flawed assumptions – where the military did not, in the first instance, prepare for a strategic ground offensive against a determined and hostile Ukraine.
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Michael Kofman, the director of the Russia studies programme at the US CNA thinktank said that thus far, lightly armoured units outran their air cover, making failed attempts to march into both Kyiv. What then happened, to the north-west of Kyiv, was that one of the Russian columns heading towards the capital – a vast, 60-kilometre-long force of about 15,000 troops – appeared to become stuck, with vehicles running out of fuel or breaking down, The Guardian reports.
Russia solving transport problems, preparing Kyiv assault, military experts say
