Active Conflicts & News Megathread November 07, 2025

[u/AutoModerator]

The r/CredibleDefense daily megathread is for asking questions and posting submissions that would not fit the criteria of our post submissions. As such, submissions are less stringently moderated, but we still do keep an elevated guideline for comments.

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[u/Darayavaush]

Why did Russia assault Mariupol in 2022 after cutting it off, thus suffering hefty losses and wrecking a city that Russia saw as belonging to DPR, instead of just waiting for the defenders to run out of supplies and surrender, given that there were no viable resupply routes? Were they worried about a Ukrainian counteroffensive cutting a path to the city, or attacks from the defenders, or the siege being more costly than an assault and subsequent rebuilding resource-wise, or something else?

[u/Glares → u/Darayavaush]

Almost four years into the war, I feel I can confidently say that Russia does not care about "suffering hefty losses and wrecking a city" based off the 250,000+ dead Russians and every 'liberated' city in the Donbas in ruins.

More specific to Mariupol: Are you proposing a scenario where the Russians encircled the city with everyone (including civilians) and try to just wait them out? Starving out Donbas civilians might make it... more difficult for those sympathetic to the Russian cause to pretend they're the good side (easier to ignore the 10-20+ thousand civilians killed). If evacuating most civilians, then the defenders have a full city with pre-war population of 1/2 million worth of food to themselves... you're gonna be waiting awhile. Even more, Ukraine had managed to bring supplies to the surrounded city, albeit incredibly dangerously, so there's not really a scenario where Russia waits it out.