Oh, guess who is back. We haven't seen you for a while, probably since shameful retreat of Russians from Kherson. It was a bit boring without you, it would be interesting to read your insights about it.
And I, in turn, got bored with the topic of Ukraine, at least against the backdrop of the recent World Cup.
Sanctions went almost painlessly? It's same like "special operation" goes as planned.
Yep, almost painless. It seems that Europe suffers from anti-Russian sanctions much more than Russia. For "twice torn to shreds" the Russian economy feels just fine.
Not at all. For a country in the BRICS group, anything less than growing the GDP by 5% is an absolute failure - which is the case. But that is only the short term. I wonder if RF is counting on China buying their oil and gas, because others will think twice before trusting the crazy Ivans.
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As far as I am concerned, Ukrainians have the right to make their own decisions. Adolf Putin has to come to the XXI century and understand that governments are to be decided by the people, anything else is Middleage.
Besides contradicting yourself about if the US is making war...
Of course Ukrainians have the right to make their own decisions. Everybody does. That's not the question.
The question is, What decisions did they make? A second question is, Were their decisions honored, or was the vote a CIA controlled lie?
There are loads of Ukrainians that side with Russia... maybe the majority. Their decision is not being honored by the US or Zelensky. And you don't even want to admit it.

No contradiction whatsoever, US is not at war, the US is helping Ukraine at 50% speed. I assume this is something you need to read twice to avoid being confused about it.
It seems that the decision was to get rid of a pro-RF government and choose a pro-occidental government. Who can blame them?