Putin will hold up Kharkiv as a scalp to show West what he will do to Kyiv

Jack Watling, research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, said Russia will use Kharkiv as a demonstration of what it will do to Kyiv if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi does not capitulate. He warned that Ukrainian civilians are 'likely to see an escalation of indiscriminate violence by Russian troops' because Russia must seize key cities before economic sanctions begin to undermine their war effort.