Russia's strategy for Kharkiv is simple: get close enough to turn the entire city into rubble using a mix of artillery and glide bombs. Ukraine has no capacity to prevent this, thanks to US Republican assistance to Putin and European lack of materiel. Those much-talked-about but never actually seen F-16s would have helped a tiny amount but remain in the land of dreams. As NATO is prevented from intervening (far too late now, anyway) by the ineradicable spinelessness of Western "leaders" there's no future in which Kharkiv survives as a livable city. This is what happens when we let Russia fight a war on its own terms and it's why NATO is now a pointless bad joke. It's why the Baltic nations know NATO won't help them when Russia invades before the end of this decade, and it's why they are training their citizens in post-invasion guerilla resistance. NATO could have crushed Russia in March 2022; now Russia would crush NATO were it to attempt to protect any of its members. As always, human stupidity wins out.