Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Wikipedia has a good detailed map showing who controls what towns and cities, and which ones are currently being contested.

This other map doesn't show the towns and cities as granularly, but does have updates on the latest happenings around the country.

Is there any realistic prospect of the Ukrainians retaking Kherson?

I would have thought that what the Ukrainians will be aiming to do for now is see if they can hold the current line of control against what intelligence appears to be saying is a prepared onslaught by the Russians on two more concentrated fronts. So, in the short term? No, I don't think there is much chance of retaking Kherson.

Right now, my concern isn't even so much Ukrainians retaking Kherson as it is over the fate of those living in occupied Kherson. The stories about residents being bussed out to god-knows-where are chilling.

Yes, the people living under occupation are in an Orwellian nightmare. I try to remain optimistic about Ukrainian prospects but worry that I'm not being realistic. I wish they were more able to carry out their own offensives rather than all the initiative being on the Russian side.

Though I'd love to see this, my fear at the minute is Ukraine are being limited at their offensive options by the majority defensive weaponry they are receiving. The western powers need to be more ambitious with their weapon deliveries.

We have seen that the Russians do not have the capacity to fight against threats on multiple axis. They mustn't be allowed to regroup and stay fresh. No its the time to give Ukraine the weapons it needs to crush the russian forces.

whatever way you look at the battle for Donbas it looks like a Russian victory in the long run, the question is how far into Ukraine will the Russians push afterwards

The West I'm sure has the means to hijack Russian Broadcasts, and to begin transmitting on the same frequency so it's beamed into millions of homes in Russia. Tell the brainwashed zombies the truth

To be slightly pedantic it's actually their third biggest import at $7.15B broken down as China ($4.63B), Vietnam ($1.14B), India ($235M), Sweden ($186M), and Netherlands ($178M).

Their two biggest imports are cars and car parts.

Also that sweeping, unsupported statement could have been made in late February about all of Ukraine and proved to be totally wrong then.

"There is a struggle in the Kremlin, the next two weeks will be decisive"

"There is a struggle in Kremlin between the lunatics and the pragmatists. And the pragmatists have realized that they cannot seize Kharkiv. The lunatics might send an army to complete destruction"

I read on Bloomberg [Paywall] that Putin will make a rare trip outside his bunker in Russia to meet Lukashenko in Belarus [Tuesday in the vostochny cosmodrome exactly if you are interested]. An opportunity for a coup perhaps to put an end to the madness. Well, all the best coups take place when the guy in question is out of the country.

A good opportunity for a particular type of coup, but I mustn't drone on about that . . .

To tell you the truth I watched this clip yesterday and that probably confirmed my thoughts and informed my opinionin that post. It’s 18 minutes long not expecting you to watch it but this is a guy who I find quite interesting a Russian philosopher who grew up in the Soviet Union in the 1980’s. I agree with all your thoughts in the above post but I do think things very noticeably moved up several gears very quickly in the last few years and people who never had much opinions in my circle of friends before are now spouting very pointed talking points that are clearly on the Pro Russian/ conspiracy type agenda which they must be bombarded with on their personal social media feeds. Anywhere here is the clip from Vlad vexler. He gives a good insight into how a Russian propaganda storm saved lukashenko in 2020.

https://youtu.be/_j6Vg7yLx54

I suggest a nuclear waste flavoured cup of tea.