Wouldn’t surprise me if Putin is going to try to one-up the US defeat of the Iraqi army in the famous Left Hook and 100-hour war.
With a massive shock and awe campaign and then superior maneuvers and technology in a rapid defeat of the Ukrainian military, trying to prove it is a first world military force up against a third world military force (yet trained and supplied by NATO).
Putin is obsessed by the USA, he would try to one-up us. A massive one-sided defeat will intimidate the Baltics and of course the Belarussians (say goodbye to independence of Belarus) and other countries in the region.
How’s the Mexican border? and inflation? And a million other things?
To heck with eastern europe