Wagner using civilian highways to convoy put the Russian AF in a more difficult spot.

If they just fired on every vehicle in the convoy, they'd be targeting Russian civilians.
That forced the 'copters into closer range so they could identify civilians from targets.
Turns out when you're not committing war crimes, you expose yourself to more risk. Who would've guessed?


The high effectiveness of Wagner during this event was (at least in part of not wholly) due to these factors. Wagner could very easily identify their targets, but their targets could not very easily identify them.


Nothing about this story says that the Russian AF couldn't easily wipe out a convoy if they chose to do so. They chose not to in order to avoid a PR disaster over indiscriminately killing their own innocent bystanders.


Y'all have both made good points. There is surely a middle ground where you can agree with each other's better points.