The return of 'rasputitsa' and what it means for Russia's war in Ukraine

Ukrainian Military Forces conduct live-fire
exercises near Kharkiv, on Feb. 10, 2022.
(Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images)

For centuries, Russia has depended on its harsh winter weather to help turn back invaders. But as summer turns to fall in Ukraine, it might be Russian forces who find themselves on the losing side of the “rasputitsa” — the wet, muddy period caused by melting snow in the spring and heavy rains in autumn.

The rasputitsa, also known as “General Mud” or “Marshal Mud,” is well-known to military historians. During Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, French soldiers were unable to effectively retreat on muddy rural roads. More than a century later, during World War II, Adolf Hitler’s tanks and trucks sputtered in waist-deep mud while attempting to advance to Moscow. Jason Lyall, a professor of government at Dartmouth, said toward the beginning of the invasion that rasputitsa is one of the “the Four Horsemen of the Ukrainian Army,” alongside portable anti-tank and surface-to-air missiles.

When the Kremlin began its brutal invasion in February, the issue of how rasputitsa would affect the invading Russian army’s battle plans was a hot topic. Alyssa Demus, a senior policy analyst at the Rand Corp., told Yahoo News in March that the Russian military could find navigating Ukrainian roads more challenging than they had anticipated.

By Niamh Cavanagh.

Full story at Yahoo News.