Many reports in videos or intercepted phone calls from new Russian recruits at the front in Ukraine are the same: They have no water. You have no food. No equipment. No weapons. No tents. Often they don’t even have a commander or any contact with the Russian army.
But what is going wrong? Historian Chris Owen has three theories:
The Russian commanders must make a desperate decision. You cannot supply all soldiers. Therefore, they supply the better trained and more valuable, experienced troops with what is left: food, fuel, weapons. The care of the newcomers is given lower priority. “That would be cruel, but rational,” says Owen.
Russian logistics collapsed. Russia simply needs to feed and supply hundreds of thousands more soldiers. “The Russians can’t handle this additional requirement,” speculates Owen. There are also clear indications that the Russians were already unable to cope with the task of logistics in this war.
The Ukrainian army has attacked and destroyed Russian supply lines since the beginning of the war, but especially during the most recent counter-offensive. In addition, many Russian military vehicles are no longer operational. “The logistics chain is therefore dysfunctional and inefficient,” says Owen.
The historian continues: “I do not know which of these explanations is true. It could be one, all, or a combination of them. But the current – possibly unrepresentative – reports from the battlefield suggest: the Russian army is not in good shape going into winter.”
It could even be that Russian soldiers starve to death in Ukraine in winter, says Owen.
