I would say there's a massive difference between maintaining a mule corps so that in the rare event you want/need to transport heavy supplies through terrain where vehicles can't go, you have the option, versus using mules as an alternative to vehicles.
The former gives you an element of surprise and/or the possibility to resupply an otherwise cut off unit, much like the capabilities granted by special forces. The latter is a sign that you don't have enough vehicles, and that your industrial base isn't able to keep up with losses.
Brainless, foul-smelling and hateful creatures, who can't be trusted not to shit wherever they stand. And the noise that they make is really offensive as well. The donkeys next to them are quite cute, though.
Heartbreaking that those critters will die because the Russians are assholes. I bet the thought is that the soldiers can eat them if they have to so its a one way trip for those poor things.
Only problem I see is you don't want the donkey to associate the drone with danger. So you would have a carrot drone ready once the donkey reaches the front before it finds out what an FPV is.
The Third Reich used lots of beasts of burden for their logistics as well. Makes sense when you want to save your oil and steel for fighting vehicles because your industrial base ain't all that.
Oddly enough, when the nazis were fighting russia, everyone expected a quick swift blow to moscow to seize the city early, and take the nation.
What shocked everyone is that they instead went south, and ignored russia. Which didn't make a lot of sense at the time. But now we know it's because hitler had ordered them to reroute to some fuel refineries and oil pumps in the middle east. Basically, they had enough fuel to reach moscow, but not much else. And by that I don't mean the squad marching to moscow, I mean the entire nazis offensive. The whole country was out of oil. If they had marched to moscow, they'd be stuck in moscow, because thats all the fuel germany had.
So they rerouted south to go hijack some fuel. Which in context makes sense. But it also caused just enough of a delay that when they got to russia, the winter had come. So now they're burning fuel just to stay alive. But still stuck in russia, because WWII german tanks don't roll in snow.
Basically to preserve fuel they would have had to go straight to moscow and win early. But to get fuel they had to reroute and cause delay which burned a lot of the fuel they just stole.
Turns out, leading a massive army across land as big as russia burns a lot of fuel. Turns out it's a logistical nightmare.
Which is funny, because NOW we know russia to be less of a country, and more as a gas station cosplaying as a country.
Hitler also got sidetracked trying to deal a morale blow by capturing Stalin's namesake city. But instead, that army got cut off from supplies, encircled, and destroyed/captured after running out of ammo and gas entirely.
Or they could just.... Go home. Russia's economy is going to be feeling the sting of this stupid war for a long time. The social implications of wiping out an entire generation of men is also going to have knock-on effects for a long time.
I feel bad for the Russian people who wanted nothing to do with the war in the first place.
I hope Putin accidentally falls outta a window on the top floor of the Kremlin after accidentally shooting himself in the back of the head twice.
Hmmm..... I think this might be a adaption to constant drone surveillance.
Supply vehicles are a major target for drones and artillery. They also leave tracks in the mud/snow that can easily be seen from the air. This gives the drone operators a fast way of locating where to search for enemy positions even if they miss the truck. The fresh tracks give them a region to search.
Now if they drop the supplies 5-10 miles from the positions and use donkeys to haul it to the final position using treelines etc the tracks will be very hard to follow. It would take a IR camera drone and a bit of luck to spot them.
I hope this is a sign of faltering Russian logistics, but I'm not certain.
If I'm trying to move heavy cartons across uneven, partially frozen, partially muddy ground I think a donkey/ mule is a very convenient* solution. Unlike an ATV you can get it right into the foxhole, and with a rope you don't need to be in the "red mist" zone of any exploding cartons.
*I say that, having never mucked out a stable or anything.