Severodonetsk. Bakhmut. Mariupol. When Russia can get a Ukrainian city in range of artillery, the result seems almost inevitable: weeks of crushing destruction followed by "meat waves" of Russian forces climbing over the rubble. Cities with centuries of history, treasured architecture, and tens of thousands of inhabitants are left as empty, blackened wastelands marked by the burned-out shells of fractured apartment buildings standing like oversized headstones in an abandoned cemetery.
For an authoritarian nation led by a brutal dictator who has no concern about civilian deaths, the destruction of culture, or how many of his own forces have to die to advance the lines by a single meter, it’s an almost perfect strategy.
Russia’s idea of “liberation” isn’t the kind of celebration that greeted Ukrainian forces as they marched into the city of Kherson. It’s the silence of the streets of Bucha. Since Vladimir Putin’s illegal, unprovoked invasion began in February 2022, Russia has brought this result to dozens of towns and hundreds of villages across Ukraine.
Three weeks ago, Russian troops began a renewed push toward Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Now Ukraine has slowed Russia’s progress and is holding Russian forces away from the city.
But that’s okay, says Putin. He doesn’t want Kharkiv anyway.
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