carlos55 wrote:
Depends how far they advance. I would doubt even if they could militarily, they would not want to go beyond the central Ukraine area
Then why were they attacking Kyiv?
carlos55 wrote:
but most towns and cities in the combat zones since feb 21 have been largely destroyed and emptied.
1. Not feb 21 but feb 24.
2. No. Kherson is still standing and full of people. Kupyansk is still standing and full of people. Melitopol is still standing and full of people. Tokmak is still standing and full of people. And so on, and so on.
A "depopulated" city is one that e.g. used to have a population of 300 thousand but now has 80 thousand (Kherson). Or one that dwindled from 150 000 to 60 000 (Melitopol). That's still plenty of people, way too many for your scenario to be even remotely possible - not to mention that many of those who left are willing to come back as soon as it's reasonably safe.
The cameras are all on Mariupol and Bakhmut because journalists are hyenas but overall, Ukraine is big and full of people, both in the occupied and the "regular" territories.
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