Otherwise this game of cat and mouse will eventually lead to more losses.
Have to agree... Zelensky wont make any sense till he realises he could lose it all... and I think the population are the same... they wont think the Russians actually are coming to them... they will think they will be happy now they have most of the territory they wanted so they will stop and sue for peace.
Cutting Kiev from the Black Sea would also offer the chance to create a land corridor to regions of Moldova, and of course if Russia gains territory on the Danube then river traffic to Serbia becomes an option that would really open up the place and stop the isolation of Serbia.
Russia currently does not have the strength for such an offensive.
The army of their enemy is in tatters and has no reserves... they have used them all for this big push.
Russian forces can bypass populated areas and just cut Odessa off and give them an ultimatum to prevent bloodshed.
They will already be mostly stripped of their fighting men and being cut off would mean they wouldn't be able to hold out for very long and there wont be a cavalry coming to save them any time soon.
Attacks all along the line would be too much for Kievs forces to handle and they would fold in a lot of places.
Russia's tactic is constant defense, bleeding Ukraine and counting on Kiev to sit down for talks.
They are careful to minimise their own casualties, but don't take that for not wishing to end this on their terms.
They can change tactics any time they like... they don't have foreign countries to please or timescales to follow.
They might not do anything till winter... the point is that Kiev wont have time to prepare... they will barely have enough time to fill gaps in their lines from all the troops they lost.
So they faked the destruction of the launcher with satellite images showing burned grass in September while trying to make it seem the launcher was still there in September by using an august timeframe taken satellite photo?
Those vehicles are mobile... to show images weeks apart and stating that a vehicle that appears to be missing has been destroyed is just a bad joke.