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Any semi-competant analyst can see that Russia had no interest in 'taking' Kiev. Not ever, and not to this day. It was obviously a tactic to tie up Ukrainians who would otherwise make the permanent taking of places like Kherson. which they do intend to keep, more costly and complicated.
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[blah blah Putin's army is great and all-powerful...Zelensky is baaaad, the west is baaaad...] 'With Jews, you lose' as the old adage goes. Ukrainians are learning that lesson yet again with Zelensky Kolomoiskiy...and the Europeans with Soros and the Americans with the neo-cons, etc.
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Act-II will be Poland taking back some historically Polish territory in the West.
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To even the most mediocre analyst, the strategy was certainly to take Kyiv - because you do not loose thousands of troops and tens if not hundreds of tanks on a diversionary attack. If you just need to pin the enemy all you have to do is be there instead of trying a number of suicidal attack. They were just counting on a mass surrender that did not happen. Putin and his Psychos are gangsters and they are mostly moved by fear and threat and expect other to surrender by fear and threat. They were wrong and the new strategy shows that they know it.
Poland, a NATO country
that has actually supplied weapons to Ukraine and even asked for US help in sending them a number of MIG warplanes, taking territory of another prospective member. 0.000000001% chance at this point. I really hope that Putin is somehow counting on that for his next masterplan.
Do not die for Putin. He is
clueless about just doing the initial downsizing of Ukraine.
Russia sent a tiny fraction of what it would take to control Kiev, and they pulled them out overnight when their diversion action was complete. Losses were minimal, and even that was something of a gain because when the Ukrainian secret police psychos came back and started the executions of 'collaborators' who accepted Russian food donations that under the rules of war Russia was obligated to supply (see. Bucha), they pretty much guaranteed that the populace of what is left of Jan 2022 Ukraine, after Poland takes their chunk of the country, would be more warm to relations with Moscow than to the West. Especially since Russian is where the energy resources, and the rubles needed to acquire them, are.
Again, they expected a surrender, miscalculated, send insufficient troops and let both special forces and a good chunk of the unready bulk of the army die for nothing. What the f*ck... all the world except Ukrainians expected a quick win for Russia, but it seems that your Psychos have tried to bite a porcupine.
Initial downsizing.. oh, I see, you are under the impression that time plays in favour of Putin's army? You have your head so full or military hype that you do not see how difficult is going to be life in Russia for the next decade. These people did figure it out already:
They have choose to not die for Putin.