It’s fair to call the Cape Tarkhankut site the linchpin of Russian air and naval defenses across the Black Sea. Which is why the Ukrainian armed forces blew it up.
You are assuming that the Russian government values the lives of their soldiers more than the strategic and economic benefit of holding Crimea. I think they’d rather hold Crimea at all costs.
And if they have to lose their Crimean dream, I’m sure they’d rather it happen after a Stalingrad-esque situation, where literally everyone fights to the very, very, very last, instead of the ignominy of their troops retreating from those lovely warm water ports.
You are assuming that the Russian government values the lives of their soldiers more than the strategic and economic benefit of holding Crimea. I think they’d rather hold Crimea at all costs.
And if they have to lose their Crimean dream, I’m sure they’d rather it happen after a Stalingrad-esque situation, where literally everyone fights to the very, very, very last, instead of the ignominy of their troops retreating from those lovely warm water ports.