There was never any intention to capture Kiev, idk why people even here of all places keep believing this nonsense. Russia never said that it had any intention of doing that, and its actions from day 1 show this clearly, you do not dedicate such a small proportion of your total troops and resources to taking a city of that size, especially not if it is supposedly your main goal. Everything they have done is 100% consistent with their statements that the operations around the northern cities were intended purely to pin down forces there and apply pressure and threat to draw manpower and resources away from reinforcing the main battle group in the east.
Now that they are doing just what they announced they would, namely pulling back from those northern cities to redeploy elsewhere since the purpose of those operations has been fulfilled is being spun as “Ukrainian victories” or “Ukrainian advances”. If they wanted to take Kiev they would have done what they did in Mariupol. That would have caused enormous damage and civilian casualties and would not only not have advanced Russia’s ultimate objectives, it would have been actively counterproductive. The Russians want an intact, legitimate Ukrainian government in Kiev with which to negotiate and a leader who will eventually sign off on Russia’s demands.
People who say Russia is “struggling” not understand the kind of enormous artillery firepower that Russia could bring to bear on Ukraine if it wanted to. It could flatten entire cities in days, but what purpose would this serve? If things were not going according to plan would you continue to fight with one hand voluntarily tied behind your back? All evidence points to the operation largely (some minor adjustments here and there and little tactical mistakes notwithstanding) proceeding as planned, insofar as the plan which the Russian leadership outlined in its recent briefings and which is consistent with their actions so far.
If anyone wants to claim that Russia in fact intended to capture all or most of Ukraine within a couple of weeks, or that it intended to take Kiev, then they should provide evidence where Russia states this intention, or how the deployment of forces and the subsequent strategy that was implemented reflect this alleged goal. But i assure you they cannot. They are ascribing intentions to Russia which it clearly never had in order to be able to claim some sort of victory when Russia does not do those things.
There was never any intention to capture Kiev, idk why people even here of all places keep believing this nonsense. Russia never said that it had any intention of doing that, and its actions from day 1 show this clearly, you do not dedicate such a small proportion of your total troops and resources to taking a city of that size, especially not if it is supposedly your main goal. Everything they have done is 100% consistent with their statements that the operations around the northern cities were intended purely to pin down forces there and apply pressure and threat to draw manpower and resources away from reinforcing the main battle group in the east.
Now that they are doing just what they announced they would, namely pulling back from those northern cities to redeploy elsewhere since the purpose of those operations has been fulfilled is being spun as “Ukrainian victories” or “Ukrainian advances”. If they wanted to take Kiev they would have done what they did in Mariupol. That would have caused enormous damage and civilian casualties and would not only not have advanced Russia’s ultimate objectives, it would have been actively counterproductive. The Russians want an intact, legitimate Ukrainian government in Kiev with which to negotiate and a leader who will eventually sign off on Russia’s demands.
People who say Russia is “struggling” not understand the kind of enormous artillery firepower that Russia could bring to bear on Ukraine if it wanted to. It could flatten entire cities in days, but what purpose would this serve? If things were not going according to plan would you continue to fight with one hand voluntarily tied behind your back? All evidence points to the operation largely (some minor adjustments here and there and little tactical mistakes notwithstanding) proceeding as planned, insofar as the plan which the Russian leadership outlined in its recent briefings and which is consistent with their actions so far.
If anyone wants to claim that Russia in fact intended to capture all or most of Ukraine within a couple of weeks, or that it intended to take Kiev, then they should provide evidence where Russia states this intention, or how the deployment of forces and the subsequent strategy that was implemented reflect this alleged goal. But i assure you they cannot. They are ascribing intentions to Russia which it clearly never had in order to be able to claim some sort of victory when Russia does not do those things.
I didn’t say they were trying to “capture” Kiev, just encircle it.
I didn’t make any such claims nor did anyone else here.