Journalist Vitaly Portnikov expressed this view on Espreso TV.“For Ukraine to cease being a political, economic, and demographic problem for Russia - even if not fully occupied - Russia would first need to reduce its population from around 40 million to 15 million. Second, it would need to strip the country of its industrial centers if total destruction proves impossible. Putin may realize that complete destruction cannot be achieved quickly. Thus, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Dnipro must either be annexed or destroyed - that is, Ukraine’s million-plus cities must disappear or be occupied and integrated into Russia, becoming Russia’s own million-plus cities, as with the regional centers of Odesa, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions,” commented Vitaly Portnikov.According to him, this is the simple but ambitious goal of confrontation for the 2020s and 2030s. The question, however, is where Putin’s resources are. Chief of Russia’s General Staff Gerasimov can draw any maps he likes, but behind them stand hundreds of thousands of Russian graves — and that number will only keep growing.“Currently, the losses aren’t as high because the Russians operate in mobile units, but to occupy such a large territory, they would have to accept that the Russian population would start to decline. Consequently, not only Ukraine but Russia itself faces a demographic catastrophe with no way to restore the nation: birth rates are already falling daily due to social problems, alcoholism, and lack of prospects. Russia is one of the countries where ethnic Russians are not replenishing. The death of so many adult men on the battlefields casts an undeniable shadow over the future of the Russian nation,” the journalist emphasized.