Understand, EVERYTHING, and I do mean EVERYTHING, you are seeing or hearing reported is propaganda from one side or the other.
I have no doubt that Ukraine is putting up resistance, and I am equally willing to believe that the Russian soldiers were lied to about what they would find when they entered the country.
However, if it takes Russian 3 weeks to surround Kiev or 3 days, you still wind up with a siege... and the end game doesn’t change. The cost for the end game may change, but the end game itself does not.
The western “press” is buying into the argument that Ukraine putting up a resistance will cost Putin and require him to back off.... This is based on the presumption that Putin will pay politically more if this drags on.... which he might, but he equally may not. Putin has been in power for decades, his power is virtually absolute, and those around him are people he’s hand picked... to cost him power someone around him has to decide they have a chance to seize it from him and act.
Could this happen? Sure, but will it happen because his “war” lasted a few months vs a few days? I don’t think anyone is going to put their neck out and try this just because the plans may not be going perfectly in the first weeks.
If Putin decides to take the gloves off, Kiev will be bombarded into the stone age... so far, most of what has been seen has been incredibly tempered so far, when everyone knows that all it will take is a few passes of conventional bombers, even using conventional bombs, can make any Ukrainian city a pile of rubble if they choose.
Time will tell what’s going to happen here, but please be aware the first casualty of war is the truth, you should be using an jaundiced eye when viewing anything reported or claimed going on right now.