Tyres and poor vehicle maintenance could be contributing to the stalling Russian military effort north of Kyiv. The UK defence ministry has reported that Russia’s 40-mile military convoy in northern Ukraine has made no significant progress for several days, stalled on the roads leading into the Ukranian capital, Kyiv, and hampered by equipment malfunctions and improvised roadblocks. So why does the Russian military not simply forge off-road routes to aid progress? According to military history blogger and retired US Department of Defense civil servant Trent Telenko, the combination of Ukraine’s mud season, or “Rasputitsa” and the poor state of Russian military vehicles’ tyres make such moves extremely difficult to make.