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I don't think that's fair. The Russians could have wrecked central Kyiv by now but clearly have been ordered not to, it's largely untouched. Of course there are
by simonh 5y ago
I don't think that's fair. The Russians could have wrecked central Kyiv by now but clearly have been ordered not to, it's largely untouched. Of course there are good reasons for that, the Kyiv skyline is an iconic part of the shared Ukrainian and Russian cultural landscape. Images of it ruined by Russian bombardment would be impossible to square with Russia's propaganda position.
On the other hand, clearly any such 'minimize damage' directive is not protecting smaller Ukrainian cities and towns.
- jacquesm 5y agoThey have leveled cities. That Kyiv is still standing is because it is well defended, not because of Russians being particularly careful with damage minimization and as you may have noticed the war isn't over yet.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoHow does “well-defended” defend against missiles? Couldn’t missile barrages already have destroyed central Kiev if Russia wanted that? (Genuine question)
- baybal2 5y ago
- jacquesm 5y agoThat's mostly a cost and availability issue. Missiles tend to be used against high value targets where accuracy is more important than cost efficiency. The cruel economics of war: civilians are soft targets, so you don't need precision or the ability to penetrate very strong defenses.
- phtrivier 5y agoMy guess would be that Kyiv is a barganing chip for the eastern part of the country that is the actual target of the invasion (Not being able to read minds, I'm on the "Putin wants the dombass mines and a buffer with NATO" team.) You don't eat your bargaining chips.
- jacquesm 5y agoThat, plus that they didn't have artillery in range until a few days ago.
- incompatible 5y agoFlattening cities with aircraft was already possible in WW2. Consider Rotterdam in 1940, which led to the Dutch surrender, or Dresden in 1945.
- jacquesm 5y agoI think I'm well aware of that, thank you. FWIW my grandfathers' house in NL was one of very few left standing at the end of WWII in the city where they lived, and my grandmothers diary makes for interesting reading, to put it mildly.
- dikei 5y agoI'm not saying the Russian are trying to minimize damage to the city, but Kyiv are well within range of their newer rocket artillery like the BM-30; so if the Russian want to level Kyiv to the ground, they would be able to do it relatively easily. In addition, they can also do carpet bombing with their high-flying Tu-95; which is mostly safe from Manpads.
- KptMarchewa 5y agoTu-95 would be just S-300 bait.
- dikei 5y agoWith enough air cover and jamming, they probably won't lose more than the American during Operation Linebacker II
- blaser-waffle 5y agoThe VVS doesn't have robust jamming, anti-radiation missiles, or SEAD. Like I'm sure they have them somewhere, but not in large enough quantities to reliably cover fat, slow bombers on regular sorties. They took down at least 2 transports full of VDV, for example.
- jacquesm 5y agoRockets are expensive, the number of rocket launchers is minimal compared to the number of artillery pieces (and the number of rockets is far smaller than the number of artillery shells) and they tend to reserve them for strategic targets such as airports. Artillery shells and bombs are much cheaper for the same level of destruction, assuming that's your goal.
- trhway 5y agoThe Kiev isn't touched much yet because they haven't started the full scale assault from all directions yet. They can't do that with Chernigov and Harkiv behind their backs left not taken. This is why Chernigov and Harkiv are being pounded right now. If/when they fall all that will move onto Kiev. >Images of it ruined by Russian bombardment would be impossible to square with Russia's propaganda position. You underestimate Russian propaganda and people brainwashed state there. Probably you're lucky to not speak Russian and thus not being familiar with their propaganda, for example with that big hit inside Russia (obviously not much success outside) of how Zelensky was using right hand to make a nuke to attack Russia while using left hand he was making chemical weapons also to attack Russia :) In case of Kiev unfortunately they would just declare that all those destroyed buildings were used as fighting positions, or may be even directly destroyed, by those Ukrainian "nazi and banderovtsy".
- foverzar 5y ago> Probably you're lucky to not speak Russian and thus not being familiar with their propaganda Sounds like quote directly from Orwell, tbh. One doesn't even need to interact with "Russian propaganda" to watch Zelensky's Munich speech and make up one's own opinion.