The battle for Kyiv could be the biggest urban battle in decades.
The city of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, covers 325 square miles and roughly two million people remain there after extensive evacuations of women and children. Capturing it, military analysts say, would require a furious and bloody conflict that could be the world’s biggest urban battle in 80 years.
“What we are looking at in Kyiv would dwarf anything we’ve seen since World War II,” said David Kilcullen, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Australian Army who has studied urban combat.
For comparison, one of the largest urban battles this century was the nine-month siege of Mosul, Iraq, in 2016 and 2017 to oust its Islamic State occupiers. Mosul covers 70 square miles and had a wartime population of about 750,000 people.
“There’s no talk of capitulation for Kyiv,” said Lt. Tetiana Chornovol, the commander of an anti-tank missile unit operating on the outskirts of the city. “Everything is going far better than we thought.”