Thread by @TheEconomist

A Russian military convoy, no less than 60km long, has been moving at snail’s pace towards Ukraine’s capital econ.st/3MESyHg

The convoy stretches from Prybirsk, a town near Chernobyl, down to at least Antonov airport, as this map shows econ.st/3MESyHg

Its most recent location is hard to pin down, since the area has been cloudy in recent days. But last week British defence intelligence claimed that the column had made “little discernible progress” econ.st/3MESyHg

🎥: @Maxar

Why is this?

♦️ Russian fuel, engineering and other supply units have struggled to keep up.

♦️ Russian units are heavy on artillery and air-defences, making logistics harder.

♦️ Russians have fixed themselves on roads with boggy ground on either side econ.st/3MESyHg

Weather still matters even to modern armed forces.

We explain how Ukraine’s muddy ground could slow down Russian tanks econ.st/3IOjKkd

Vehicles have been left stranded on the road. Images of the convoy show trucks crowded on the road, three abreast, preventing anything from passing econ.st/3MESyHg

Video footage shows Ukrainian tractors gleefully towing away what are purported to be abandoned Russian air-defence systems and armoured vehicles.

In some cases, Russian soldiers have even punched holes in their fuel tanks to avoid facing combat econ.st/3MESyHg

Such a long and exposed convoy should be a juicy target for air strikes.

Yet Russia is likely to have deployed air-defence and electronic-warfare systems around the column, making it harder for Ukrainian aircraft to approach econ.st/3MESyHg

This type of congestion is not unprecedented in big wars. The German advance into France in May 1940 was described as “the largest traffic jam in European history”, resulting in a 250km-long logjam econ.st/3MESyHg

Despite all this, the fog of war remains thick. Russia may have chosen to slow down its movement in order to synchronise its various advances on Kyiv econ.st/3MESyHg

But Ukraine’s forces are preparing to fight back. Our correspondent reports with the latest from Kyiv econ.st/3tAUw2C

Inside Kyiv, ordinary people awaiting a siege prepare to defend their families or join militia. For @1843mag, @ronhaviv photographed people waiting for their weapons, hoping for a chance to survive econ.st/3hKAOvN

We are following the war in Ukraine closely. Keep up to date with the latest developments ⬇️ econ.st/3Kl37gy