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UKRAINE: Most Shocking News So Far

Posted on | March 21, 2022 | Comments Off on UKRAINE: Most Shocking News So Far

Multiple outlets are reporting that an elite Russian airborne regiment, the 331st Guards, has been wiped out in the fighting near Kyiv. Both the regimental commander, Col. Sergei Sukharev (pictured above) and his deputy, Major Sergei Krylov, have been confirmed by the Russians as killed in action, which lends credence to the otherwise unbelievable claim that an entire regiment of paratroopers is now hors de combat.

Among other things, this report gives a sense of the severity of the Russian army’s logistics problem in Ukraine. We must conclude that Russia simply lacks the transportation capacity to reinforce their front-line troops, because otherwise this regiment would not have been wiped out. Of course, such a devastating loss for the Russians is also testimony to the skill and tenacity of the Ukrainian forces, who can now boast of having beaten Russia’s best troops. If the 331st Guards can’t survive in Ukraine, what will be the fate of Russia’s less elite units?

This is certainly not the only bad news for Putin’s invading army:

Ukraine, with the help of Belarusian railway workers, have dealt a devastating blow to Vladimir Putin’s war plans. On Saturday, Belarusian railway workers carried out the “largest act of sabotage” on train lines leading into Ukraine, making it impossible for the Russians to resupply by train. This follows unverified reports of Ukraine battalions also blowing up train lines between Ukraine and Belarus.
The railway sabotage comes as supplies and morale among Russian troops continue to sink.
It is also a major blow to Russia, which had moved many of its troops and military equipment into Ukraine through Belarus since the invasion began.

Because an army in the field requires tons of food and other supplies daily, the wrecking of rail lines in their rear will make the Russian logistical problems in Ukraine even worse than they already are, particularly in the area near Kyiv. Meanwhile, in the southern theater of the war, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea fleet was killed in the fighting near the besieged port city of Mariupol.

The only proper adjective for Russia’s losses is unsustainable:

Entire regiments wiped out? Multiple generals killed in combat? This makes me think of the Battle of Franklin, in which the casualties included 14 Confederate generals (six killed, seven wounded, and one captured), and after which Hood’s army essentially ceased to exist. But that devastating Confederate defeat came near the end of the war in 1864, after more than three years of fighting, whereas Russia is experiencing these dreadful casualties after only three weeks.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

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Category: Ukraine

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