“I expect the media’s analysts to have no idea what is going on. Simply put, Russia is administering a thorough azzkickin’. Twitter expects everything to be happen within an hours’ time, like it is on live action TV shows. This is why they’re baffled, they’re stuck in “instant coffee” mode. But life rarely, if ever, works out that way.”
I agree that the media is clueless here. We don’t have good reports on the ground to follow events. Everyone except those there are really ignorant of the scope. Saying all that, it wasn’t in Russia interest to expose 50% of their entire military force in an operation that is this slow. Further, who bombs nuclear power plants and waste depots? How does this further your cause or your perception? No, there is alot of evidence to suggest that things aren’t going the way Putin wanted, even if overwhelming military might prevails.
I’ve been watching You Tube videos produced by foreign sources. They have a much better grasp of the reality backed up by presented facts than I have seen here.
I know, I know......... You tube. But I also know that practically all American news is propaganda. News “Made in America” is simply not beleivable
YOU would bomb certain buildings concealed within a nuclear power plant if those buildings were being used as biological weapons labs. Certain buildings were destroyed but not the entire nuclear power generation facility.
The evil ones thought they could get away with hiding bio weapons labs in the plant because Putin’s army would not attack their nasty lab if concealed there.
More than one such lab in Ukraine sits concealed within or adjacent to a target Russia would normally not destroy.
The media is generally clueless about anything other than the leftist message and propaganda they are told to spew. It has been obvious for years, decades even that they don't bother to do any research, proof reading, nor editing. It is all about the narrative.
Anyway, I *think* I'm starting to see what is going on in Ukraine. Granted this is just an engineer's view from thousands of miles away but consider:
Putin is old school, so are his supporters. They like the idea of the glory days of the Soviet Union. They at least like the idea of buffer states. Finally, they have some real (and probably valid) concerns with having a NATO member nation right in their face with a decent sized military of their own, access to NATO resources, and poised uncomfortably close to Caspian Sea oil fields which Russia depends upon. After all, we demonstrated to the world that we could run a campaign of rapid armor advancement a couple of times now in the Middle East. That was across mostly unforgiving desert. Southern Russia is much more tank/armor friendly terrain with many more roads. A few rivers, but those are easily crossed, NATO has been practicing that for decades in preparation for war in Europe.
So I believe Putin has two strategic objectives. First, keep Ukraine out of NATO. Second, install a pro-Russian or at least Russia-friendly government. Maybe something similar to Belarus which occasionally makes some noise, but is still there for Russia - heck some invasion forces have apparently come through Belarus.
In light of those probable strategic goals Putin wouldn't want his military stomping across Ukraine destroying everything in it's path. They want a conquered Ukraine that they can use for resources, not a drain on their own. They also don't want a united Ukrainian population rising up against them. They're also trying to do this "on the cheap" without committing overwhelming forces and resources. As a consequence we're seeing a number of "odd" things:
In short - they are only pushing as hard as they need to, not as hard as they could. The pressure will continue to build through slow advancements, taking more territory. There will be ever increasing hardships on the Ukrainian people. Eventually Ukraine will have to negotiate a peace, or Russia will have taken enough territory and cities to declare/install their own government and unilaterally declare a halt to hostilities. Then anyone that continues fighting will be labeled terrorists...