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Notes -
Is there any realistic method where Ukraine has the wherewithal to actually capture a city filled with Ukrainian civilians that the Russians don't want to give back? They probably lack the will or capability to bombard it, as the Russians would go to ground among the civilian population, and in many ways a bombed out city is easier to defend than an intact one. Siege would starve the civilians long before it starved the Russians. And taking it by frontal infantry assault would cost the Ukrainians far too many men. The idea that the Ukrainians are going to take back any cities is a pipe dream.
The Russian view is that there are no Russian-controlled cities with a significant number of pro-Ukrainian civilians (as any such civilians evacuated westward shortly before or after the beginning of the war), and so Ukraine would not have any particular compunctions. I think this is plausibly true except for Kherson and maybe Berdyansk, which does call into doubt the seriousness of the counteroffensive in taking the former. Some Russians including Strelkov have been claiming that the Kherson front is a distraction to enable another offensive (the NPP or Izyum) and doing little told-you-so dances when a push against the latter commenced today.
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