Russian Forces Enter Kharkiv Amid Heavy Fighting As Kyiv Braces For Assault

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty ^ | February 27, 2022 | RFE/RL correspondents Mike Eckel and Todd Prince, AP, Reuters, AFP, BBC, and dpa

[ScottinVA]

This isn’t about Crimea, Donetsk or Luhansk. It’s about a demented KGB thug trying to reestablish the USSR.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

Good point!

[Eleutheria5]

The fly is conquering the flypaper. Urban fighting is like drinking Vodka. Feels good going down, next day you have monster headache.

[Eleutheria5]

Gosharooti. Didn’t they see Enemy at the Gates? Don’t they remember Stalingrad? Or Leningrad? Or whichever dumbass dictator whose name is no longer on any town?

[Eleutheria5]

But it’s refreshing to see some bad guy vs. good guy action, with no holds barred, and the good guy fighting above his weight and winning. It makes one hopeful that the F14s and nuclear bombs can be defeated by armed citizens.

[pierrem15]

I've watched quite a bit of video from Kharkov on Twitter.

The Ukrainians are wisely not trying to defend a big perimeter around the outskirts of the city, which would array concentrated Russian forces against a thin line of defenders.

Instead, they allow the Russians to enter the city and then whack them, allowing local concentration of mobile Ukrainian forces who can then move on elsewhere to attack again and again.

Sort of like Finnish "motti" tactics in 1940, only using buildings instead of forests.

[Zhang Fei]

[I’ve watched quite a bit of video from Kharkov on Twitter.

The Ukrainians are wisely not trying to defend a big perimeter around the outskirts of the city, which would array concentrated Russian forces against a thin line of defenders.

Instead, they allow the Russians to enter the city and then whack them, allowing local concentration of mobile Ukrainian forces who can then move on elsewhere to attack again and again.

Sort of like Finnish “motti” tactics in 1940, only using buildings instead of forests. ]

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What it sounds like is the second coming of Grozny. Like the original, I expect the Russians will start taking the entire city down with air and artillery strikes. It worked in Hama and it worked in Grozny. If Poland starts handing over its Warsaw Pact equipment to Ukraine, including aircraft, could it challenge Russian air superiority? Will Ukraine move its seat of government to Lviv/Lemberg, much as West Germany moved it to Bonn (immortalized as “A Small Town in Germany” by John LeCarre), under less stressful circumstances? Questions, questions ...

[Scott from the Left Coast]

If the Russians decide to go Grozny and reduce these large cities to rubble instead of encircling them, God Help Us All. This is the kind of scenario that leads to larger, broader wars and widespread death and destruction.

If the Ukrainians are concentrated in the cities this is the worst possible result.

[Georgia Girl 2]

So they aren’t blowing up residential areas, schools, churches or government buildings. 🤔

[windsorknot]

So they aren’t blowing up residential areas, schools, churches or government buildings.

Right. It’s a “mostly peaceful” invasion.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Well my point is its not an Occupying invasion. If the UN was doing it they’d call it a police action.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Not that I have any use for the UN. Just making a point. If you believe as I do (of course you don’t) that Putin is part of an alliance to get rid of the NWO along with Trump then you could call it a police action or limited military operation.

[pierrem15]

First off, Kiev and Kharkov are -much- larger cities than Grozny. Second, if the Russians start bombarding both cities at scale that will trigger NATO intervention in the air.

The latter doesn't even have to be a collective decision. Poland will find itself with Russian troops on three sides if Putin wins. Polish intervention would probably generate a Russian response allowing Poland to invoke Article V.

[Elsie]

Second, if the Russians start bombarding both cities at scale that will trigger NATO intervention in the air.

Why?

NATO has no dog in this fight.

[pierrem15]

That's what triggered the interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo. Which Putin knows.

As far as not having a dog in this fight, there is no NATO member who doesn't hope that Putin loses, especially the members closest to Russia.

Now you or I may think we have no dog in this fight, but we don't make the political decisions, and the political classes do think we have a dog in this fight.

[Elsie]

Aren’t we lucky.

Folks in power that don’t care what treaties say on paper.