We all watching a convoy and wondering why it's stalled.

[boston bean]

All the while Putin is bombing the hell out of the country. Killing, maiming, destroying.

It’s a head fake.

Ask yourself why zelensky is begging for air planes and a no fly zone.

[BeyondGeography]

1. Or maybe the bombing picked up because the convoy is stalled

That’s a lot of equipment to squander on a head fake.

The plan was to roll into Kyiv, install a puppet and get this over with minimum fuss. Didn’t happen. Not least because it was a stupid plan.

Btw, head fakes are for people who know what they’re doing.

[Achilleaze]

2. Meanwhile, US trucker-tantrum convoy (R)

Steadily converging on DC from multi-directions...

They mean to f*ck things up as best they can. But it is TOTALLY FUZZY what has them in such a whiney funk.

I call them what they are: toxic treasonous Trumpucker republicans. And this is their second stinking attempt to destroy America and American democracy.

[JohnSJ]

3. It might be a "head fake", but I think the Ukrainians are well aware of that

[MineralMan]

4. What I'll do is ask you where you heard that about a "head fake," instead.

Do tell, or did you just think that up yourself?

[boston bean]

5. I made it up all by myself using a thing called thoughts.

Do you deny more damage is being done by air or not?

the convoy means diddly at this very moment. Russia is blundering? I don’t think so. There another thought written down.

Russia is winning via the air.

[MineralMan]

9. Thanks for your honest answer.

[Scrivener7]

6. Oh. My. God. Really?

[boston bean]

13. Yep. For real. Like I can't have a conclusion formed all by myself.

And somehow doing so is a really bad thing.

Original thought must not be tolerated doncha know?

[Scrivener7]

20. I think it's coming from the new fad that is becoming a regular feature among some here,

the chastisement of those who comment on the actions of those in government positions.

It appears you are not allowed to notice that Vlad is a snake in the grass ex-KGB agent, whose actions have ALWAYS been more likely to be head-fakes than not. Your making that observation is you stepping over the line into areas that are best left to the professionals!

Opinions are bad. Observations are bad. Unless they are cheerleader-y and rhetorical. Then they're OK.

You upstart!

[boston bean]

21. Ha ha. You know those facts that help form opinions. Bad. Especially bad if you write about it!

[Hav]

7. I disagree

It's not as if Russia's atrocities aren't in the news.
The convoy, partially without fuel and stuck in the mud, deserted by troops running out of food, isn't a sign of Putin's brilliance. It shows how inept they are waging this war. They only have the numbers on their side.

[Scrivener7]

8. Anything Vlad does, our first thought should be, "Is this a head fake?"

So, yeah. Totally possible.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Mistake not fake

Senior commanders are being killed in the convoy as they went far forward try to get it moving.

You don't sacrifice senior commanders in a head fake.

Many reasons from centralized tire pressure systems in the trucks, to a top heavy navy sucking money from army, to underpay and underfeeding, to mysterious lack of air support, etc. that explain the existence of the convoy and its gridlock.

Convoy was and is an integral part of the plan to quickly encircle Kiev and install a puppet government. The quickly part not so much any more.

[MineralMan]

11. Yup. Not a head fake.

As you said, just a mistake.

[boston bean]

15. It does give him reason to attack from the air.

Intentional or not we could argue.

Air attack is his MO.

[Raven123]

12. Regardless of the cause, the attention it receives is astoundingly excessive

Pundits can’t help pondering the reasons. Makes no sense

[mcar]

14. It's stalled because Ukrainians have bombed bridges and shelled roads

Also shelled the tanks themselves.

[boston bean]

16. At the convoy they have bombed it totally?

[mcar]

17. I didn't say totally

I said they've bombed some of the convoy and the roads and bridges so the convoy cannot proceed. What I read was that it got close enough for Ukrainians to do this.

[boston bean]

19. I just thought they were not paying much attention to it. Point was

Look ie over here a convoy. Russia sucks. While they are having the hell bombed out themselves.

[dawg]

18. You're right that Russia is winning the air war.

It's just that, on paper, they would have been expected to establish control of the skies within the first couple of days. And that just hasn't happened, much to the embarrassment of the Russian military.

Likewise, the convoy is bogged down because of incompetence. It isn't a trick.

Russia still has the firepower and might to eventually grind down and defeat Ukraine's conventional forces. The fact that this hasn't already happened exposes Russia as a second-rate power that is much weaker than originally believed.

[planetc]

22. Using intuition, and relying on ...

unreliable facts, I wonder if the only part of Russian armed forces that works is the air force, at the moment. Has Putin discovered that his army has no morale at all? Or worse, does his army want to go home without blowing anything else up? Was Putin existing in a fool's paradise of believing that his army was ready, able, and willing to fight when then were unready, unable, and unwilling once they got to Ukraine? Is Putin stuck in front of the entire civilized world with a bunch of people who are rebellious, sullen, disgruntled, and fed up? If their rations really expired nine years ago, no wonder they're looting Ukraine grocery stores.

[haele]

24. Looking at history -Putin has never been in an actual war.

He's had his military do quick strikes in small breakaway countries who were in the process of rebelling, sort of like an abusive dad taking a belt to a tween for talking back, or was backing up some other dictator who was doing most of the heavy lifting militarily, so he never had to commit large amounts of troops or resources on the ground before.
He thought he was WWII Stalin. Just throw a bunch of bodies there and the peasant population would cow down before the might of the Russian Army. But like most mobsters, he packed his Staff with equally corrupt personalities who thought in terms of profits rather than a profession and a job well done. They lie to themselves and take short cuts, because, well, who cares so long as money is made.
It all looks great until there's real resistance.

As it was, Stalin was beat badly in the late 1910's and 1920's when they tried to expand the original Soviet, so badly there almost wasn't a Soviet Union. He had to get professional Army leadership before he could get any gains. The Stalin of WWII was a long, long way away from Stalin the Bolshevik firebrand fighting the White Army.


Haele

[uponit7771]

23. That convoy isn't naked and protected by AA and not moving anywhere to be effective