Do you think the retreat from Nikolaev, Kiev, Snake Island, etc. are really just ‘goodwill gestures’ from the Russians, and not signs of their failure to achieve their objectives?
Do you remember in 2014 when Putin told the Spanish PM he could take Kiev in ‘two weeks’ if he wanted to? Do you think he just doesn’t want to, or that he actually can’t?
Do you think the retreat from Nikolaev, Kiev, Snake Island, etc. are really just ‘goodwill gestures’ from the Russians, and not signs of their failure to achieve their objectives?
Not familiar with Nikolaev, probably wasn’t paying attention.
Kiev was to try to get a quick settlement to the war, so that Ukraine wouldn’t have to get dismembered. Zelensky wanted that but the UK and US told him “no way”. So on to Plan B, which was to tie up half of the Ukraine military around Kiev, while the Russians got positioned in Donbass and got their supply lines working - otherwise Ukraine would have rolled over them there. So Plan B worked. Despite what the Daily Mail claims, there was never a Plan C to take Kiev by force with 30,000 troops.
“Do you remember in 2014 when Putin told the Spanish PM he could take Kiev in ‘two weeks’ if he wanted to? Do you think he just doesn’t want to, or that he actually can’t?”
Probably closer to 1 week if he actually went to war against Ukraine, rather than this very limited Special Military Operation.