Russia and Ukraine

[Anomalocaris]

Or plan z41-b. Aka, if you can’t accomplish what you wanted, just smash some shit, complain bitterly, and call it a day.

the only outcome from the day that matters for Russia is to make sure NATO can’t ever deploy either nukes or ballistic missile defense in Ukraine. 

If Putin achieved just this and no others, no doubt western press will hail that as a resounding victory for heroic Ukrainian resistance, but they will forget Putin offered the west just this and no others, free of any charge in the form of Ukrainian casualty and property damage ahead of time, before the war started.

basically the west didn’t mind ukrainians bled so long as russians bled, even if the end results is the same.

to be cynical, the US decided ukrainian blood is a small price to pay for hurting Russia as much as possible for pushing NATO back from Russian borders.