Reports suggest that Uke commanders may have told Russian troops that if they would bug out and leave the arms behind, they would not be attacked while fleeing. It is so handy for enemies to have common languages.
Orc combat aircraft are expensive, and Ukes have shot a number down, plus what they destroyed or damaged in Crimea a few weeks ago. In fact it was just reported that a plane taking off in Crimea suddenly went out of control and crashed spectacularly. Had this craft been damaged in one of those air strikes? How hard would it be to damage or remove some small part in a plane to cause it to crash. It is already suggested that it was not the Ukraine regular military that bombed the Crimean airports.
Putin hoped to take over most of Ukraine. Initially he did not want to destroy a lot of infrastruture. It was several weeks before he finally decided to destroy that huge steel mill to get the Azovs inside. Flattening cities in the East was not a problem since his interest was the oil, gas and other resources under ground. I only fear that when he looses all hope, whatever restraint remains will be forgotten. I doubt use of nukes because Russia is downwind of Ukraine frequently. Whoever takes over from Putin will not want to deal with major fallout headaches.
Grant was successful because he was capable of independent actions. Does any Putin commander have similar freedom? Success in a kleptocracy. Big guys steal big money and stuff, little guys steal computer chips. Then everyone wonders why nothing works, but is afraid to report the bad news.
New video has shown Ukrainian soldiers rolling into recently liberated towns, part of Ukraine’s stunning offensive in the east that has freed an estimated 150 thousand people from Russian rule.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fluAN8GtqQY
“Grant was successful because he was capable of independent actions. Does any Putin commander have similar freedom?”
When you work for a dictator, you don’t want independence of action, because that just means it will be your head on the chopping block if something goes wrong.