‘Mad Max’ Comes to Ukraine

Has Hollywood come to Ukraine with or without Mel Gibson?

In the 1979 movie Mad Max, set in post-apocalyptic Australia, one of the characters says, “They say there are no heroes anymore but we are going to bring them back.”

Max Rockatansky and his cohorts patrol the motorways as a ‘force multiplier’ to keep order. Frankenstein vehicles abound as that’s all that’s left after the apocalypse. One of the gang says, “This is a land that needs a hero.” Isn’t this being duplicated in Ukraine at the present? Its military planners knew they were on the back foot to match Russia’s manpower. The answer was to cripple Russia – not in the conventional way but with their ‘Mad Max’ manoeuvres.

Ukraine must have seen the movie, as Mad Max-type vehicles are appearing everywhere and are called “technicals”. They are an integral part of Ukraine’s attacking force in this dystopian universe of Russian attacks. Older vehicles bought from the West for a few thousand dollars are armoured up giving them the Mad Max look, then missile launchers are mounted on them to make them into ‘doom buggies’. The Peugeot 307 is a favourite as it’s fast, going from 0–60 mph in 10 seconds. Speed is of the essence to dodge Russian retaliation and make their quick getaway. Tiny doom buggies can obliterate huge Russians tanks.

If you are a Russian in the Kursk Oblast, which, after all, is Russian territory, you won’t want to hear these words from Ukrainian forces: ‘We’re back’. But shock, horror, they are. This was hard fought ground for six months between the Ukrainians and the Russian and North Korean forces. The Ukrainians were eventually driven out last year. But it’s like they never left. The Ukrainians have blown up a bridge in Kursk cutting off supplies to the Russians.

Zelensky’s forces are not only snatching territory from Kursk but are also in the Donbas region, occupied by the Russians since 2014. The Euromaidan Press and SBS reported that ‘Mad Max’ tactics helped breach Belgorod, also, which is only 373 miles from Moscow and borders Ukraine in the west. These same ‘Mad Max’ high-speed tactics were also used in Kursk. Tanks and planes were not used. This is a new kind of warfare helped along by 300 Bradley armoured vehicles. Once mines are cleared from the Bradley’s path they are almost invincible. The Bradleys at 41mph are faster than most tanks, can carry more personnel and are mounted with God knows what implements of destruction.

The most recent lightning attacks on Kursk and Belgorad could have been a page ripped from the script of the 1981 film Mad Max 2 also called The Road Warrior. Max (Mel Gibson) sits up in his warrior truck cab, along with his mate Wes and the gang, and tries to fend off attacks from the insane opposition. These ‘warrior trucks’ are the equivalent of the Bradleys used by Zelensky’s forces today.

Ukraine’s invasion of Russia looks like it could become habit-forming after Belgorod, which is a staging post for Russian attacks on Ukraine, with urban centres like Sumy and Kharkiv in its sight. Notice the constant bombing of Sumy where even civilians are sacrificed to the Putin meat grinder. ‘Darth Putin’ now has to decide if he will defend Russian territory or keep hammering Ukraine. Either way it is an unwelcome distraction and part of Ukrainian strategic cunning. Putin has just sacked his top general in charge of land forces, which indicates that Russia is losing territory.

What is next on the ‘hit list’ for Ukraine? Why not make it personal for Putin and pick on his holiday hot spot, Crimea? Putin, taking no chances, has shifted more air defence systems there. Also trench diggers are being paid a fortune: 90 dollars a day, which is more than Russian soldiers get. The families of the military have already left Crimea. They know what’s coming!

‘Darth Putin’, who skipped Istanbul even though it was his idea, doesn’t want peace in Ukraine but a piece of Ukraine, preferably where the valuables are, like in the Donbas where coal and coke mines can support lucrative steel production. Is this Putin’s idea of the ‘art of the deal’? So what if it’s only taken 963,000 deaths and casualties of Russians and North Koreans to get this far.

Putin went to extreme lengths to protect himself by bringing air defence systems to Moscow from other parts of the country for the 9 May parade in Red Square. This left the rest of the country vulnerable to Ukrainian attacks. Even so the area in and around Moscow seems to be under fire. An optical fibre plant was destroyed along with two other factories recently. The Kremlin has had to remove its fighter jets out of harm’s way to another location.

Were the Mad Max films, made roughly 45 years ago, a peek into our dystopian future? Only time will tell.