There’s something to be said about defending the homeland. Russia will fail here.
Yup. Especially when the invader tells you many times your nation is illegitimate and he will wipe your off the face of the earth. Any people hearing that would fight like wildcats for there land and families. ESPECIALLY a people with a history like Ukraine. This is Gadhafi level arrogance from Putin. I’m suspecting a similar end for him at this point.
Putin wasn’t too bad. He was stable until now, obviously. I think he was trying to take advantage because of Joe Biden’s weakness and he has judged that the moment is now or never. So he is going for broke. The problem is that when Putin’s gone, who will replace him? Boris Yeltsin was a joke. They need a strongman to rule that nation with thousands of nukes.
Plus add in the lack of motivation from Russians to fight fellow eastern Slavs.