Why Russian troops are attacking on motorbikes

THE LATEST film in the “Mad Max” series, released in May, is a motorhead’s fantasy, teeming with warlords who ride through a post-apocalyptic desert on choppers, Harley Davidsons and dirt bikes. The tactics are improbable, and the violence is extreme. Yet in recent months something not dissimilar has been happening in Ukraine. For much of the war Russia has attacked using conventional “combined-arms” tactics: troops advance in armoured vehicles, supported by tanks and artillery, then dismount to fight on foot for the last few hundred metres. But since April some Russian troops have been attacking on motorbikes. Why?