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Exactly, and of course Kyiv/Bucha was close to the early fighting - Russia made a thunder run directly to it from the nearby border. Russia started their invasi

Exactly, and of course Kyiv/Bucha was close to the early fighting - Russia made a thunder run directly to it from the nearby border. Russia started their invasion a 2 hr drive from Kyiv, with no resistance they could have occupied it in hours. Instead they managed to create a military traffic jam the entire length of the highway trying to force the issue. Nowadays, Kyiv is a 8 or 9 hr drive from the major fights, like going from New York City past Philadelphia past Baltimore past DC past Richmond and all the way to Raleigh, NC.

bpodgursky 4y ago
There was a great WSJ piece about this recently [1]. It's a mistake to frame it as a passive mistake by Russia — there was some truly incredible spontaneous thinking and heroism on Ukraine's part that turned it into a traffic jam / deathtrap. In a slightly different world, if a couple dozen people had been less committed to stopping the blitz, it could have ended very differently. [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-invasion-ukraine-battle-of-kyiv-ragtag-army-11663683336 https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-invasion-ukraine-battle...
- miguelazo 4y ago
  Or if Putin had taken the gloves off earlier (as many nationalists to the right of him had been demanding) it would have ended very differently as well.
- mcv 4y ago
  I heard that a special unit was traveling on quad bikes through the swamps next to the column to harass the column in various ways and ensure supplies never reached the front of the column. My impression as a layman is that Ukraine has been fighting this war with a lot of creativity and innovation, surgical precision and excellent coordination. Unlike Russia, which tried to be fast and clever but failed at it, and has since relied on just massive firepower to destroy everything in their path.
  - miguelazo 4y ago
    “Destroyed everything in their path?” War would be over if that had been their strategy. Did the recent mobilization not teach you anything at all? Putin has been fighting with the gloves on, if not one hand tied behind his back. The “surgical precision” you get fed in the media is also a direct function of close coordination with the US war machine, which starves the American people of even potable water as it spends more than the next several largest countries combined.
    - bpodgursky 4y ago
      lol, the recent mobilization taught us that Russia has chewed through its entire supply of trained and armed soldiers, and is now desperately conscripting unwilling old men. It's not going to change anything. I hope you figure out sooner rather than later that you're living in an information bubble that will inevitably pop.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - miguelazo 4y ago
        At least I'm not living in the information bubble where it makes sense for Russia to blow up its own pipeline and shell the nuclear facility that it is occupying ;-)
- bohdank 4y ago
  Yes, the Ukrainian military had to blow up the dam in the northern suburbs of Kyiv, the city of Vyshgorod [source: https://www.npr.org/2022/09/06/1121201310/ukraine-flooded-village-dam-blown-up https://www.npr.org/2022/09/06/1121201310/ukraine-flooded-vi...] That way, they safeguarded the area from Russian mechanical advancement. But some Russian hot heads still managed to get into the city and rode their tanks in the northern borough of Kyiv — Obolon.
dilyevsky 4y ago
> Instead they managed to create a military traffic jam the entire length of the highway trying to force the issue. That’s decisively not what happened. Ukrainian army and in some cases territorial defense blocked them
- qaq 4y ago
  Both things happened, the first Russian general was killed by UA SoF sniper when he went to the front of stuck column to try and deal with the traffic jam. They could not have occupied Kyiv in hours though cause closer Kyiv their columns were getting decimated by UA artillery.

bpodgursky 4y ago

There was a great WSJ piece about this recently [1]. It's a mistake to frame it as a passive mistake by Russia — there was some truly incredible spontaneous thinking and heroism on Ukraine's part that turned it into a traffic jam / deathtrap. In a slightly different world, if a couple dozen people had been less committed to stopping the blitz, it could have ended very differently. [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-invasion-ukraine-battle-of-kyiv-ragtag-army-11663683336 https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-invasion-ukraine-battle...

miguelazo 4y ago
Or if Putin had taken the gloves off earlier (as many nationalists to the right of him had been demanding) it would have ended very differently as well.
mcv 4y ago
I heard that a special unit was traveling on quad bikes through the swamps next to the column to harass the column in various ways and ensure supplies never reached the front of the column. My impression as a layman is that Ukraine has been fighting this war with a lot of creativity and innovation, surgical precision and excellent coordination. Unlike Russia, which tried to be fast and clever but failed at it, and has since relied on just massive firepower to destroy everything in their path.
- miguelazo 4y ago
  “Destroyed everything in their path?” War would be over if that had been their strategy. Did the recent mobilization not teach you anything at all? Putin has been fighting with the gloves on, if not one hand tied behind his back. The “surgical precision” you get fed in the media is also a direct function of close coordination with the US war machine, which starves the American people of even potable water as it spends more than the next several largest countries combined.
  - bpodgursky 4y ago
    lol, the recent mobilization taught us that Russia has chewed through its entire supply of trained and armed soldiers, and is now desperately conscripting unwilling old men. It's not going to change anything. I hope you figure out sooner rather than later that you're living in an information bubble that will inevitably pop.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - miguelazo 4y ago
      At least I'm not living in the information bubble where it makes sense for Russia to blow up its own pipeline and shell the nuclear facility that it is occupying ;-)
bohdank 4y ago
Yes, the Ukrainian military had to blow up the dam in the northern suburbs of Kyiv, the city of Vyshgorod [source: https://www.npr.org/2022/09/06/1121201310/ukraine-flooded-village-dam-blown-up https://www.npr.org/2022/09/06/1121201310/ukraine-flooded-vi...] That way, they safeguarded the area from Russian mechanical advancement. But some Russian hot heads still managed to get into the city and rode their tanks in the northern borough of Kyiv — Obolon.

dilyevsky 4y ago

> Instead they managed to create a military traffic jam the entire length of the highway trying to force the issue. That’s decisively not what happened. Ukrainian army and in some cases territorial defense blocked them

qaq 4y ago
Both things happened, the first Russian general was killed by UA SoF sniper when he went to the front of stuck column to try and deal with the traffic jam. They could not have occupied Kyiv in hours though cause closer Kyiv their columns were getting decimated by UA artillery.