Taking a city is the most manpower intensive challenge in warfare. Every advantage lies with the defenders.

If you sit outside and bombard it to rubble you simply create ideal cover for your enemy - as the Nazis discovered to their cost at Stalingrad. Stalingrad alone swallowed an entire German army.

If you move in you are fighting street by street, building by building, against people who are operating on their own ground. Most of your fancy tech is nullified, you are in the open, and your opponent is in cover. It’s brutal, and requires well trained troops with high morale.

So there is no shortcut - you have to expend copious amounts of materiel and of blood.

Kyiv is 7 times the size of Stalingrad. Ukraine has 50 cities with over 100,000 residents, and literally hundreds of smaller urban communities.

I haven’t seen a single analyst who believes that the Russians have the resources to even begin to conquer this number of urban centres. Their only option is to destroy their infrastructure and attempt to starve them into submission.

And once you take a city, what then? There are 44 million brave and bloody-minded Ukrainians who don’t want you there. Many are trained, and even more are armed. The West will be supplying them liberally with the best weaponry. Foot patrols will be sniped at. Armoured patrols will be taken out by anti-tank missiles. Bases will be attacked by drones…

It’s unworkable. The Russians simply don’t have the resources to sustain such a bloody and unprofitable occupation.

Putin believed that he would have a puppet regime installed in Kyiv within 48 hours - this proved to be a gross miscalculation. Now he needs to find a viable exit strategy or he will be tied up in a bloody insurrection for years, military morale will collapse and his treasury will bleed dry.

Culled from quora

This is the truth

That is why the Russian army is staling in entering kiev and kharkov

donestk:
Taking a city is the most manpower intensive challenge in warfare. Every advantage lies with the defenders.

If you sit outside and bombard it to rubble you simply create ideal cover for your enemy - as the Nazis discovered to their cost at Stalingrad. Stalingrad alone swallowed an entire German army.

If you move in you are fighting street by street, building by building, against people who are operating on their own ground. Most of your fancy tech is nullified, you are in the open, and your opponent is in cover. It’s brutal, and requires well trained troops with high morale.

So there is no shortcut - you have to expend copious amounts of materiel and of blood.

Kyiv is 7 times the size of Stalingrad. Ukraine has 50 cities with over 100,000 residents, and literally hundreds of smaller urban communities.

I haven’t seen a single analyst who believes that the Russians have the resources to even begin to conquer this number of urban centres. Their only option is to destroy their infrastructure and attempt to starve them into submission.

And once you take a city, what then? There are 44 million brave and bloody-minded Ukrainians who don’t want you there. Many are trained, and even more are armed. The West will be supplying them liberally with the best weaponry. Foot patrols will be sniped at. Armoured patrols will be taken out by anti-tank missiles. Bases will be attacked by drones…

It’s unworkable. The Russians simply don’t have the resources to sustain such a bloody and unprofitable occupation.

Putin believed that he would have a puppet regime installed in Kyiv within 48 hours - this proved to be a gross miscalculation. Now he needs to find a viable exit strategy or he will be tied up in a bloody insurrection for years, military morale will collapse and his treasury will bleed dry.

Culled from quora

Brillant analysis. Putin zombies will soon arrive.

donestk:
Taking a city is the most manpower intensive challenge in warfare. Every advantage lies with the defenders.

If you sit outside and bombard it to rubble you simply create ideal cover for your enemy - as the Nazis discovered to their cost at Stalingrad. Stalingrad alone swallowed an entire German army.

If you move in you are fighting street by street, building by building, against people who are operating on their own ground. Most of your fancy tech is nullified, you are in the open, and your opponent is in cover. It’s brutal, and requires well trained troops with high morale.

So there is no shortcut - you have to expend copious amounts of materiel and of blood.

Kyiv is 7 times the size of Stalingrad. Ukraine has 50 cities with over 100,000 residents, and literally hundreds of smaller urban communities.

I haven’t seen a single analyst who believes that the Russians have the resources to even begin to conquer this number of urban centres. Their only option is to destroy their infrastructure and attempt to starve them into submission.

And once you take a city, what then? There are 44 million brave and bloody-minded Ukrainians who don’t want you there. Many are trained, and even more are armed. The West will be supplying them liberally with the best weaponry. Foot patrols will be sniped at. Armoured patrols will be taken out by anti-tank missiles. Bases will be attacked by drones…

It’s unworkable. The Russians simply don’t have the resources to sustain such a bloody and unprofitable occupation.

Putin believed that he would have a puppet regime installed in Kyiv within 48 hours - this proved to be a gross miscalculation. Now he needs to find a viable exit strategy or he will be tied up in a bloody insurrection for years, military morale will collapse and his treasury will bleed dry.

Culled from quora

Wrong analysis! The Russians have absolutely no desire to take Kyiv ......what is the strategic value of taking and holding such a large territory......? The Russians are just tying down the Ukrainian forces in kyiv and kharkiv so that they are unable to reinforce Ukrainian army(called joint forces operations )in eastern Ukraine......where 80% of the fighting is taking place. The Russians want to partition eastern Ukraine away as an independent region or country as that part of Ukraine is ethnic Russian. You guys need to understand the true dynsmics of the war!

True, there's no strategic value in taking Kiev. I said it here in the first 3 days of Russian offensive.

Although Kiev is largely and mostly populated by ethnic Ukrainians it will be unthinkable to occupy Kiev

One thing am partly sure of is Kharkov is going to fall in Russian hands after Mauripol and I think the Ukranians know this that's why they concentrate their far right nationalist forces there because they can give no room for compromise.
Either the hold Mauripol and Kharkiv or they see it destroyed.

Why is Mauripol and Kharkiv Important; because of historical ties and strategic importance
Kharkiv is a heavily developed and industrial area and withing the donbas industrial sphere. Also the second largest city in Ukraine with a strong Russian speaking population although ethnic Russians are less than 40%
kharkiv can be the provisional capital of a lugansk republic if Russia has its ways they will be a pseudo referendum after the fall of Kharkiv and it only makes sense if they are going to have strong baby republics in donbas to challenge Ukraine in the future

Now Mauripol is already in the Donetsk oblast, a big maritime domain and strategic port city, if there's going to a Donetsk people's republic, Mauripol should be it's crown jewel (although it's been reduced to rubbles)

Other strategic aim of Russia maybe
1. Creating a land link from Crimea to the new baby republics
2. Cutting Ukraine off the Azov sea as it will not want to see nato fleet in the guise of military exercises there in future
3. Cutting Ukraine off the Black sea by taking Odessa (I fee this will be too harsh, it will make Ukraine landlock)
4. Complete denigrating of Ukrainian military capabilities, thereby giving the proto state (baby republics) time to internalize and organize a capable defence force to challenge Ukraiine

But for Kiev.....nothing, Russia is just going to keep pounding it until it gets what it wants

afube:






Wrong analysis! The Russians have absolutely no desire to take Kyiv ......what is the strategic value of taking and holding such a large territory......? The Russians are just tying down the Ukrainian forces in kyiv and kharkiv so that they are unable to reinforce Ukrainian army(called joint forces operations )in eastern Ukraine......where 80% of the fighting is taking place. The Russians want to partition eastern Ukraine away as an independent region or country as that part of Ukraine is ethnic Russian. You guys need to understand the true dynsmics of the war!

Even with the unbiased clear narrative

Putin Fan Bots are still ranting up and down

Who fights a war without taking the capital since WWII?

If Russia have taken the capital, the war would have ended since

So what is the clowns above me talking about?

They are not taking Kyiv. They partitioned Ukraine into two, the core of the Ukraine army is in the east which are getting decimated by the Russian army. Kyiv is too big for Russia to occupy.

Svlla:
True, there's no strategic value in taking Kiev. I said it here in the first 3 days of Russian offensive.

Although Kiev is largely and mostly populated by ethnic Ukrainians it will be unthinkable to occupy Kiev

One thing am partly sure of is Kharkov is going to fall in Russian hands after Mauripol and I think the Ukranians know this that's why they concentrate their far right nationalist forces there because they can give no room for compromise.
Either the hold Mauripol and Kharkiv or they see it destroyed.

Why is Mauripol and Kharkiv Important; because of historical ties and strategic importance
Kharkiv is a heavily developed and industrial area and withing the donbas industrial sphere. Also the second largest city in Ukraine with a strong Russian speaking population although ethnic Russians are less than 40%
kharkiv can be the provisional capital of a lugansk republic if Russia has its ways they will be a pseudo referendum after the fall of Kharkiv and it only makes sense if they are going to have strong baby republics in donbas to challenge Ukraine in the future

Now Mauripol is already in the Donetsk oblast, a big maritime domain and strategic port city, if there's going to a Donetsk people's republic, Mauripol should be it's crown jewel (although it's been reduced to rubbles)

Other strategic aim of Russia maybe
1. Creating a land link from Crimea to the new baby republics
2. Cutting Ukraine off the Azov sea as it will not want to see nato fleet in the guise of military exercises there in future
3. Cutting Ukraine off the Black sea by taking Odessa (I fee this will be too harsh, it will make Ukraine landlock)
4. Complete denigrating of Ukrainian military capabilities, thereby giving the proto state (baby republics) time to internalize and organize a capable defence force to challenge Ukraiine

But for Kiev.....nothing, Russia is just going to keep pounding it until it gets what it wants

....fantastic analysis.......i could not have put it better!