Why the Russians Keep Driving Into the Same Vuhledar Kill Zone

The Russian military has instilled a culture of inflexibility which even thousands of deaths and hundreds of failed attacks has been unable to erase. 

To Ukraine's great advantage. JL 

Brian Neely reports in Business News:

It is such a notorious kill zone that it has become a meme on social media. Russian commanders are being stubborn and inflexible. Russian battalions and companies keep doing what they were already doing – however disastrously – until some colonel or general at the brigade or division level specifically instructs them to stop and do something else. So Russian crews continue to drive their tanks and combat vehicles to that deadly crossroad on the road to Vuhledar. And have been blown up by landmines and missiles. “The Russian military has a tendency to reinforce failure."

A Russian tank exploded at the crossroads outside Vuhledar.

through social media

A road intersection a few hundred yards outside the town of Mykilske in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region has become a bizarre death trap for Russian soldiers.

The Ukrainian military has mined the intersection. Ukrainian soldiers armed with rockets and anti-tank missiles and their drones lurked nearby. It is such a notorious kill zone that it has become a meme on social media.

 

But this did not stop the Russians from trying to cross the crossroads. Frequently, After weeks of ambushes, the intersection is now littered with the remains of a dozen or more destroyed tanks and combat vehicles.

fresh prey At Killer Crossing, a BMP-2 combat vehicle tried to cross on or before Monday—and ran over a mine before being hit by an anti-tank missile.

It’s clear why the Russians first tried to force the intersection late last year. The front line in this area of ​​the Donbass runs east to west along the To509 highway, which bisects the Russian-held towns of Pavlivka and Mykilske.

the nearest Ukrainian The citadel, Vuhledar, is situated a mile to the north via secondary roads. The Kremlin has targeted Vuhledar as part of its ill-fated winter offensive, which Strength succeed in Finally Capturing the bloodied liberated city of Bakhmut, 60 miles to the north.

Everywhere but Bakhmut, the offensive has ground to a halt. That intersection just north of Mykilske helps explain why. The Russians fail, then stubbornly double down, triple down, and quadruple down on that failure.

The Russians had already been advancing towards Vuhladar for a few weeks when the Ukrainians launched what may have been the first complex attack at the Mikhilske crossroads.

Part of a Russian naval infantry battalion with tanks and combat vehicles – T-80s and BMP-2s, apparently rolled up By intersection and Above Mines of Ukraine. Possibly Soviet-vintage TM-62s.

The result was that the vehicles caught fire and their crew and passengers got thrown out. One tank tried to escape but was hit by a Ukrainian team firing a rocket-propelled grenade. An uncontrolled BMP apparently ran over a helpless soldier standing on the road.

The bent metal remnants of that ambush were still evident when, about two weeks later, another Russian formation was trampled at the same intersection and, surprisingly, Too hit the mines, It apparently happened again a few days later with that latest BMP-2.

Experts aren’t surprised. “The Russian military has a tendency to reinforce failure,” said analysts Mikhailo Zabrodsky, Jack Watling, Oleksandr Daniluk and Nick Reynolds in a study for the Royal United Services Institute in London.

RUSI analysts accused the Russian commanders of being stubborn and inflexible. But even close to the front lines of junior officers can be mistaken. “In the interval when higher headquarters want to formulate a plan, paralysis grips the lower sectors if their initial orders do not reflect the situation on the ground.”

That is to say, Russian battalions and companies keep doing what they were already doing – however disastrously – until some colonel or general at the brigade or division level specifically instructs them to stop and do something else. Don’t give

So in the midst of an almost complete collapse in leadership, Russian crews continue to drive their tanks and combat vehicles to that deadly crossroad on the road to Vuhledar. And have been blown up by landmines and missiles.