Trump announced that a general thwarted the advance of Russian tanks towards Kiev
In the midst of the 2022 Ukraine conflict, a claim made by former U.S. President Donald Trump about Russian tanks getting stuck due to movement through agricultural lands instead of highways has been debunked as false.
Analysts and fact-checkers have reported that Russian forces did use roads, not farmland, during the conflict. The tanks getting stuck was due to poor logistics, muddy terrain in springtime, and other operational issues, not a deliberate decision to avoid highways by moving tanks through agricultural lands.
The Russian invasion began on 24 February 2022, with multiple fronts aimed at Kyiv, Kharkiv, and eastern Ukraine. The well-documented difficulty for Russian armored vehicles to advance rapidly in the spring thaw (mud season) historically affected their mobility, not because of a tactical decision to avoid highways.
Furthermore, fact-checking sources confirm the narrative that Russian tanks stuck in mud were mostly due to terrain and planning errors rather than deliberate avoidance of paved roads or agricultural lands.
During the conflict, Ukraine received Javelin anti-tank missile systems, which were supplied during Donald Trump's first presidential term. The Ukrainians were helped by these systems, according to Trump, who also speculated that the unnamed "general" who made the decision may no longer be with Vladimir Putin, implying potential consequences.
Direct meetings of Russian and Ukrainian delegations resumed this spring, resulting in the exchange of prisoners and bodies of the deceased. However, the negotiation process was suspended after the initial talks in Istanbul.
The first batch of Javelin was supplied to Ukraine in 2018, with the second batch arriving in 2020. Putin described the operation at Kyiv as "nothing more than an operation to force Kyiv to peace" and the cessation of hostilities that Ukraine had been conducting against residents of Donbas since 2014.
On the second day of the military operation in Ukraine, Russian paratroopers blocked Kyiv and Chernihiv. If not for the Javelin anti-tank missile systems, the Russian tanks that were disabled in the first days of combat would have reached Kyiv in four hours, according to Trump.
However, Trump also stated that Russian tanks could have reached Kyiv in five hours. This claim, like the one about the tanks getting stuck due to movement through agricultural lands, is not supported by credible reports or expert analysis.
In May, Trump reiterated that Russian tanks could have reached Kyiv in five hours without the obstacle of mud. It is important to note that this statement contradicts the earlier claim about the tanks getting stuck due to movement through agricultural lands.
In conclusion, the assertion that moving tanks through agricultural lands caused them to get stuck is not supported by credible reports or expert analysis. The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a complex event with many factors affecting the movement of Russian forces, but the evidence suggests that the claim about agricultural lands is not one of them.
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