Kharkiv was as important as Kyiv. It's the second largest city in Ukraine, old capital city and close to the border with Russia. If they couldn't take Kyiv they would take Kharkiv. Kherson is not that important from strategic point of view when compared to the two biggest cities.
The War in the Ukraine
- Thread starter SampanViking
- Start date
It would appear so. ASB has a long thread with too many links to post. So I’ll summarize it instead.
Russia has been launching a crap ton of Kalibr cruise missiles across Ukraine.
For once, Russia is actually doing something that should have been done months ago.
Imo I dont think either side took many losses in the Kharkiv offensive. Ukraine utilized small group tactics and mechanized warfare to the fullest, and I dont think RuAF or Russian artillery were really able to deal any meaningful damage. The same could be said for the Russians who were able to retreat in good order.
Hasn't some high level Ukrainians been talking about breaking up Russia since way before the war? People like Oleksiy Arestovych, the advisor to Zelensky, I think he said something like this in 2019. It seems to be the intention of some of the nationalists all along, to be at the frontlines fighting for the West against Russia. I don't think this comment really changes anything strategically for either side.
Wasn't one of the major issue with Crimea was that Ukraine had control of the North Crimean Canal in Kherson that supplied most of Crimea's water? Ukraine shut off the water supply, and Russia had a lot of difficulties trying to somehow bring water to Crimea. Taking Kherson meant the canal is now under Russian control thus guaranteeing water stability for Crimea.
That's good and all, but where are the strikes on the Dnieper bridges? Ukraine is free to move NATO trained formations from Western Ukraine and beyond at will, and Russia has no way to interdict them.
It depends on how you define victory or defeat for Russia. From Putin's Feb 24th televised address () it appears that Russia's military operation had 3 primary goals:
1. Independence of the Donbass from Ukraine.
2. De-militarization of Ukraine. Meaning the surrender and disarmament of the Ukrianian Armed Forces.
3. De-nazification of Ukraine (I assume regime change to a pro Russian government in Kiev).
IMO if Russia fails to achieve most or all of these stated objectives then this war is a loss for Russia.
Pretty sure NATO want to do. Didn’t a former NATO general make posts about wanting to break up Russia right before the Kharkiv offensive? It seems like idea is somewhere along the lines of splitting Russia into 25-30 different nations.
NYTimes reported that the strikes on Kharkiv infrastructure had also knocked out the water supply to most of the city according to the mayor.