Letter – Are Russians playing games with convoy?

SIR – Everyone stares in horror at the huge serpent of military lorries forming a queue to get into Ukraine's capital city. Has anyone thought of the possibility that half these lorries could be empty?

On Wednesday satellite images showed these vehicles have not moved in 24 hours. Is it because of the logistics confronting the Russian army or is it a smoke and mirrors operation?

In the Second World War we, the Brits, stuck inflatable tanks and military hardware around the Dover/Folkstone area to make the Nazis think that was the direction from which the invasion would come to Europe.

It worked; a considerable number of assets were moved away from other parts of France to the Dover straits.

Here we have what looks like an all-out invasion force hoping that the Ukranians will panic and move more forces to where these trucks are, thereby weakening the defence forces elsewhere.

What makes me think this is quite simple: many of the trucks shown are designed to carry troops. Each truck will carry up to 24 men. That is a lot of soldiers in the convoy, even if not every truck carries men.

Soldiers being humans (debatable in this case) need to eat, stretch their legs, be fed and ablute, so they will have to leave their vehicles. Satellite images show very little in the way of human activity around the convoy. I wonder why.

John Walsh,
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