Deadly Russian infighting inside Ukraine

 Business Insider:

A Russian tank commander deliberately attacked another Russian position in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine this summer following a battlefield argument, a major new report said.

The incident, part of a sweeping investigation by The New York Times, is one of the clearest examples of the vicious in-fighting that has plagued President Vladimir Putin's military throughout the war.

A Russian drone operator who said he witnessed the episode told the paper that a Russian tank commander drove his T-90 tank toward a group of Russian national guard troops, fired at their checkpoint and blew it up.

"Those types of things happen there," the soldier said, adding that he has since fled Russia.

The national guard, or Rosgvardia, is not part of the Russian armed forces, and reports to Putin directly.

That rift was one of several at play in the Russian war effort. Other power centers include the mercenary Wagner group, led by Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, and the forces led by Ramzan Kadyrov, the warlord who leads Russia's semi-autonomous region of Chechnya.

The Russian military appears to have limited coordination with any of them, officials said, according to the paper.

"There was no unified command, there was no single headquarters, there was no single concept and there was no unified planning of actions and command," retired Russian General Leonid Ivashov told the paper. "It was destined to be a defeat."
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This is another explanation of the ineptitude of the Russian command and control in this war and the failure of Russian forces to achieve objects or control all the previously captured areas.