Not sure how you fit the failed Russian paratrooper assault on the airport in Kyiv, the stranded column heading towards the capital, the high casualty rate and loss of equipment in which dress uniforms were found. Unless you have solid grounds to say that this was all fake news, then the easiest solution is to believe Putin when he first expressed his war aims for Ukraine, namely to decapitate its government (controlled by some combination of Nazis and drug addicts) and reincorporate it into Russia.
If this maneuver was meant to be a raid to draw off Ukrainian soldiers from fighting in the East, it was a very costly sideshow and doesn’t adequately explain the Ukrainian counter-offensive that dislodged Russian forces from parts of the Donbas. It also fails to account for the on-the-scene reporting by Russian military bloggers expressing anger at their military’s performance - unless they too are part of a disinformation campaign which we would have to believe is principally targeted at the Russian home front (unless they are all in on it as well - in which case we have entered a tin-hat conspiracy zone).
From a distance, and given both sides’ interest in pushing their own narratives and propaganda, it is hard to make clear sense of what is actually happening on the ground. Let’s just say that I’m skeptical of your take.
Not sure how you fit the failed Russian paratrooper assault on the airport in Kyiv, the stranded column heading towards the capital, the high casualty rate and loss of equipment in which dress uniforms were found. Unless you have solid grounds to say that this was all fake news, then the easiest solution is to believe Putin when he first expressed his war aims for Ukraine, namely to decapitate its government (controlled by some combination of Nazis and drug addicts) and reincorporate it into Russia.
If this maneuver was meant to be a raid to draw off Ukrainian soldiers from fighting in the East, it was a very costly sideshow and doesn’t adequately explain the Ukrainian counter-offensive that dislodged Russian forces from parts of the Donbas. It also fails to account for the on-the-scene reporting by Russian military bloggers expressing anger at their military’s performance - unless they too are part of a disinformation campaign which we would have to believe is principally targeted at the Russian home front (unless they are all in on it as well - in which case we have entered a tin-hat conspiracy zone).
From a distance, and given both sides’ interest in pushing their own narratives and propaganda, it is hard to make clear sense of what is actually happening on the ground. Let’s just say that I’m skeptical of your take.