If they had won, the capital would be theirs, as would be the second largest city too, and everything between them.
They somehow deluded themselves it would be more like the Germans in Austria, or the Warsaw Pact in Czechoslovakia, with some shock and awe fireworks. This would why they sent the Rosgvardia internal troops columns on Kharkiv in riot control trucks as a vanguard, and thought taking Kyiv would be like Kabul 1979. This might be also why the SVR chief was so nervous, he knew it's not going to be like that. It was never supposed to end like it did, and that's the Ukrainian achievement.
Applause for Ukraine. They managed to stay an American puppet rather than becoming a Russian one.
Whether or not you think that Russia was 'defeated' because it failed to achieve its bold objectives on those fronts, it's still true that Ukraine has not won any significant victory against opposition, which was my initial point.
There would be no Ukraine at all. Putin is very clear about that, I don't know why you don't listen to him when he tells you there was never any Ukraine.
They retreated because they were defeated.
If they had won, the capital would be theirs, as would be the second largest city too, and everything between them.
They somehow deluded themselves it would be more like the Germans in Austria, or the Warsaw Pact in Czechoslovakia, with some shock and awe fireworks. This would why they sent the Rosgvardia internal troops columns on Kharkiv in riot control trucks as a vanguard, and thought taking Kyiv would be like Kabul 1979. This might be also why the SVR chief was so nervous, he knew it's not going to be like that. It was never supposed to end like it did, and that's the Ukrainian achievement.
Applause for Ukraine. They managed to stay an American puppet rather than becoming a Russian one.
Whether or not you think that Russia was 'defeated' because it failed to achieve its bold objectives on those fronts, it's still true that Ukraine has not won any significant victory against opposition, which was my initial point.
There would be no Ukraine at all. Putin is very clear about that, I don't know why you don't listen to him when he tells you there was never any Ukraine.
In all honesty, I don't understand why I am supposed to care about whether or not there is a Ukraine.
It wasn't for 200 years. And no one cared. Now we're suddenly supposed to care, because American hegemony.
Did you read that article that I sent you, explaining the Polish perspective?