I'm not. Putin chose a war of economic and soldier attrition over a war against civilians. Additionally, whatever mess you make in an area you will one day occupy is self-defeating because you want the people on your side, and you want to limit rebuilding costs.
Unfortunately virtually every village, town or city that Russia has captured so far, has been left in total ruin.
It was interesting to see some of these towns, and how in many cases the Orthodox Churches remained virtually unscathed depite the town being flattened.
It is only now that the Ukrainian front is collapsing in the Donbass that the Russians are walking into towns and villages and capturing them with either little to no damage.
I personally do however believe that the Russians will Not be rebuilding most of the single street villages, but rather seek to consolidate the inhabitants into developing more planned towns, which can more economically be rebuilt and managed moving forward.
Parts of cities and towns remain, but villages are erased, and may remain so. Of course, it's practical to first install infrastructure in built-up areas. I hope that within a few years after the war, Ukrainians and ex-Ukrainians will be given a choice which side they wish to belong to.
It's already happened to an extent. Those who wished to temain Ukrainians fled to Western Ukraine when the war started, while those who wanted to become Russians either stayed in the region, many of whom are fighting on the Russian side, in units like DPR forces, while others fled into Russia, many of them are working in the arms and munitions factories in Russia.
This I believe will result more or less in the final distribution of people when the war is over.
There will always be stragglers because of family ties, and old folk and those unwilling to give up their homes, stayed put. But, yes, most who wanted to go West, did so. However, I don't believe that those in the West who wanted to go East did. They didn't understand how bad it'd get for Russian Ukrainians.
I'm very surprised that they hadn't taken out the entire power grid before now, but Russia has been playing nicely so far.
At some point that will change.
I'm not. Putin chose a war of economic and soldier attrition over a war against civilians. Additionally, whatever mess you make in an area you will one day occupy is self-defeating because you want the people on your side, and you want to limit rebuilding costs.
Unfortunately virtually every village, town or city that Russia has captured so far, has been left in total ruin.
It was interesting to see some of these towns, and how in many cases the Orthodox Churches remained virtually unscathed depite the town being flattened.
It is only now that the Ukrainian front is collapsing in the Donbass that the Russians are walking into towns and villages and capturing them with either little to no damage.
I personally do however believe that the Russians will Not be rebuilding most of the single street villages, but rather seek to consolidate the inhabitants into developing more planned towns, which can more economically be rebuilt and managed moving forward.
Parts of cities and towns remain, but villages are erased, and may remain so. Of course, it's practical to first install infrastructure in built-up areas. I hope that within a few years after the war, Ukrainians and ex-Ukrainians will be given a choice which side they wish to belong to.
It's already happened to an extent. Those who wished to temain Ukrainians fled to Western Ukraine when the war started, while those who wanted to become Russians either stayed in the region, many of whom are fighting on the Russian side, in units like DPR forces, while others fled into Russia, many of them are working in the arms and munitions factories in Russia.
This I believe will result more or less in the final distribution of people when the war is over.
There will always be stragglers because of family ties, and old folk and those unwilling to give up their homes, stayed put. But, yes, most who wanted to go West, did so. However, I don't believe that those in the West who wanted to go East did. They didn't understand how bad it'd get for Russian Ukrainians.