Russia destroys a TV tower in Kharkiv Ukraine, in a sign they are targeting the city.

 

The destroyed TV tower in Kharkiv. Reuters. 

Russia has destroyed a TV tower in Kharkiv, which is a sign of Russia's designs on the city. Reuters. President Zelensky said it was an effort by Russia to make the city uninhabitable. Russia has been targeting Kharkiv with missile and air strikes for weeks now and thousands have fled the city. The TV tower was hit by a KH-59 cruise missile. The pace of attacks from Russia has increased as Ukraine has ran out of air defenses and the Kharkiv region has been hard hit. 

Watch the moment the Kharkiv TV tower snaps in half and falls to the ground after the Russian attack.

The broadcasting signal was disrupted, and no casualties were reported.https://t.co/hhEnBfNWIW pic.twitter.com/5tYPvnIUqF

— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 22, 2024

My Comment:

The destruction of a single TV tower is not that significant in the big scheme of things. The tower has been attacked before and the attack is most notable as it was very impressive that the cruise missile managed to hit that tower so effectively. It was a very good shot.  

It's also telegraphing that Russia's next major target will be Kharkov. The city, now know by it's Ukrainian name Kharkiv, is a strategic and symbolic target for Russia. It's a major Russia-speaking city that functions as Ukraine's 2nd city. Taking the city would be a huge victory. 

The problem the Russians face is that urban combat is an absolute mess under the best of times but is even worse when there are civilians everywhere. It's why they are targeting things like this TV tower and Ukraine's power generation. They want to make the city uninhabitable so these civilians will evacuate. That should make the city at least a little easier to capture. 

The real question is if Russia is going to have a major summer offensive or if they will continue their general offensive on a lower, less intense scale. There are arguments for both as Russia has had quite a bit of success with their more limited attacks. Indeed, just today they took the town of Ocheretino, which is west of Avdiika. The town was the center of their new defense line after evacuating that city and from what I understand that town fell extremely fast because Ukrainian soldiers fled the battlefield. 

Of course you would not know that if you only watch mainstream media. In the real world the fall of Ocheretino was a much bigger story than the destruction of one TV tower, but guess which one has dozens of articles in western sources while the other does not? Indeed, this post was going to be about the fall of Ocheretino but there were no western sources to use. 

Ocheretino shows that Russia's current strategy of airstrikes and pressure followed by infantry assaults is working, but there is a real temptation for a big "arrow" attack with concentrated forces. Doing so could help pain the map in a big way and could also lead to a major collapse of Ukrainian forces. And that could end the war. 

But the problem is that offensive warfare is a lot harder than defensive warfare and a major attack could cause tremendous casualties. Though Ukraine's military is obviously showing cracks and is rapidly running out of troops, the problem is that they can still do damage. If the offensive isn't effective Russia could damage their troops for no real gain. 

It's also possible that this is another feint. Though Russia appears to be gathering forces this might be misdirection and the attack could come somewhere else. Russia could attack some place where Ukraine's forces are weak and are falling apart. And they just might want to continue their effective tactics they are using now.