While the Russian military struggles to make even minor advances in their occupation, Russia's reputation for inflicting mass civilian casualties to accomplish what its military commanders can't remains intact. Artillery shelling and similar attacks have targeted populated civilian centers, and Russia continues to seemingly lie outright about supposed "corridors" allowing Ukrainian civilians to evacuate the cities now under siege. Whether it will result in war crimes charges against Russian commanders or against Vladimir Putin himself remains unknowable—but on the ground, Russia appears bent on inflicting civilian casualties as a primary method of forcing Ukrainian military surrender.
An AP story on the violence reports Ukraine is now charging Russia with "tactics reminiscent of siege warfare, encircling cities, cutting off escape routes and pounding the civilian population with heavy ordnance." Ukraine is also charging Russia with allowing "evacuation routes" that primarily lead into Russia or Belarus—routes only useful for pro-Russia separatists, even as the majority of Ukraine's population looks to evacuate to anywhere but into the hands of their attackers. Russian troops have also fired on civilians attempting to evacuate, and there are unconfirmed reports of Russia mining roads that would be used for such evacuations.
Russia has lost the war—that much is clear to everyone not inside the Kremlin itself. But Putin still seems convinced that he can inflict enough damage on Ukraine's cities to force the nation's surrender (and subsequent long-term guerrilla warfare against whatever fool is willing to be propped up as Putin's preferred puppet leader.
In the meantime, Russian military assets continue to be picked away at by Ukrainian defenders more than willing to take advantage of Russia's stretched-thin supply lines. And Russia's attempts at fomenting revolution elsewhere are in real jeopardy as the nation's military remains bogged down in Ukraine while showing that it was not nearly the fighting force Putin and his kleptocratic allies pretended it to be.
