This is a conversation with my colleague Josh Roggan writing global opinions for the Washington Post.

His interview with the Mayor of Karkif. You've read the headlines about Karkif under assault.

Joe makes it very clear that this is a measured and calculated

assault similar to what was done to Grozny in the late 20th century and Aleppo is mentioned as another example. The Russian style is to win ugly

and to reduce a city to rubble, not to invest ground troops in. Urban fighting is extremely

challenging and slow going, but to make it unlivable. And Josh describes that

tactic here exactly.

Karkif under the Russian assault.

It's very close to the border so we can presume many of the weapons being used against

Kharkif are in Russia.

More of this detail tonight.

Right, it's been in the last few months that attacks on energy infrastructure have increased, power generation,

factories of all kinds, and they're just trying to hobble the place to turn it into

rubble so that the people can't live their daily lives.

And what Kharkiv has done is

started borrowing energy from other Ukrainian cities which are having their own

problems by the way and rationing it in every you know coffee shop and at home and factory in the Kharkiv region has to operate on a strict schedule because power is that scarce.

So it's not just a military assault it's an assault on the

Mines in the and the and the and the sensibilities of every

Ukrainian in that region to terrorize them so that they surrender but the mayor said they're not going to

surrender they're going to keep fighting whether we helped them or not.

You spoke with the mayor about long-term thinking about what will end this war and I believe he brought forth a position that's

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