I think they honestly thought Ukraine would collapse quickly. I remember in the days before the invasion that there was a ton of propaganda that was basically Russia's army is masculine, Ukraine is a they / them army or something along those lines. It is entirely possible for a countries leaders to assume that they are better than the really are at fighting.
I think they had plenty of evidence of how it went in Crimea to base their estimations on, but things were pretty different both in Ukraine and internationally in 2014 compared to 2022.
I think they honestly thought Ukraine would collapse quickly. I remember in the days before the invasion that there was a ton of propaganda that was basically Russia's army is masculine, Ukraine is a they / them army or something along those lines. It is entirely possible for a countries leaders to assume that they are better than the really are at fighting.
I think it's entirely possible they really drank their own kool-aid and didn't assess the reality of what an invasion would require.
I think they had plenty of evidence of how it went in Crimea to base their estimations on, but things were pretty different both in Ukraine and internationally in 2014 compared to 2022.
imagine not learning from george bush's mistakes
Before this I thought Russia was way smarter than it seemed.
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Clearly the NATO training paid off. And enough Ukrainians are willing to fight.