Not only that. More importantly, standing there for weeks made all subsequent explanations and provocations completely unbelievable. The troops tired and demoti

Not only that. More importantly, standing there for weeks made all subsequent explanations and provocations completely unbelievable. The troops tired and demotivated. Provisions (if they had any) depleted. And Ukrainians better prepared. Frozen ground could have made it easier to move around but on the other hand, troops are generally much more miserable when it is cold outside. Don't think that just because they are Russians they don't get cold. From what I am seeing Russian soldiers do not seem to be prepared well for cold. It seems they thought they will only go for some military maneuvers and then back home, not into full scale winter war. And another thing I am seeing is that they seem to be trying to find pretext to abandon their equipment. Those tanks stuck in mud -- there are ways to extract them. Russians regularly train in muddy conditions so I can't imagine they are surprised by conditions in March.