What was city that had key strategic importance to Russia? Mariupol. If Kyiv was a primary target and deemed absolutely necessary to take it would have that appearance today. Foreign leaders wouldn’t be strolling in and out on the daily, into a city that is relatively untouched. It would have had literally thousands of cruise missile and artillery strikes for weeks on end, power would have been yeeted long ago, and various other things that happen when a city is conquered. I agree with commentators that state if the RF had it as a primary goal to conquer it would be mostly rubble and life would not be going on relatively unscathed as it is now.