As I’ve written previously, the Russian offensive was launched on multiple fronts and has four major targets: the capital of Kyiv; Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city and the north; the east, including areas west of the Donbas region, and the south, including the ports on the Black and Azov seas.

The Russian military has used a mix of maneuver and siege warfare in an effort to achieve its goal of breaking the Ukrainian military and government and conquering vast regions of the country.

Where the Ukrainians have put of stiff resistance in the cities, Russian forces are bypassing them to take other key objectives, while at the same time the Russians are attempting to surround the cities and pound them into submission with deadly air and artillery strikes.

This can be most easily seen in the north on the Kharkiv front, where Russian troops hit a wall north of the city.