and that raises the question:
how do you force a country that if it didn’t before, does now, hate Putin, certainly the large majority of the population, to accept a government that Putin wants (Russia-friendly, non-aligned, buffer, whatever) without the total occupation of the country?
You try to put in puppets as governors of all the provinces and mayors of the big cities and so on, but these people will tend to be assassinated in short order
how many Russian troops and police will be needed in Ukraine to be able to make a buffer government viable?
I think he genuinely thought everyone except the far western part around Lviv would view him as a liberator
they don’t
There are 6-8% nationalists according to polls, most Galician carpetbaggers. They can be chased back to Galicia and quietly hate further.
Very few on these boards are getting accurate info from Ukraine.
I was on a Zoom call with dozens of Ukranians yesterday. The country is not being blown to bits. The refugees are mostly RICH people who have left and are staying in neighboring countries with friends.
Fox is the worst when it comes to painting an accurate picture of what is happening.
The military activity is mostly stopped as peace talks are ongoing.