4 ms·

Did they? Or was it Western perceptions of the Russian intentions? Ukraine is a huge country with 40 million people. One does not simply take over that in a

Did they? Or was it Western perceptions of the Russian intentions? Ukraine is a huge country with 40 million people. One does not simply take over that in a few days.

seanw444 4y ago
One does, according to HN armchair tacticians.
- NicoJuicy 4y ago
  That's not what is said. They are referencing to the "planned" articles that appeared on Russian state media days after the invasion. Additionally, Russia thought that they bribed enough politicians to willingly hand over the cities to them. The resistance was obviously more fierce than expected. This isn't about HN armchair whatever. This is known news if you're following the situation as many here do...
  - alaricus 4y ago
    > This is known news if you're following the situation if you are following the situation from Western media outlets. The West has a stake in this fight and the reporting is far from unbiased.
    - taskforcegemini 4y ago
bsder 4y ago
I think Russia did expect to take the country quickly but expected to do so mostly by suborning the leadership. Russia did get at least one Ukranian city surrendered to them, for example. I don't think Russia expected to have to genuinely take Ukraine militarily. They haven't had to do that in any prior invasions, and there wasn't much reason to believe that they'd have to do it here, either. The fact that Ukraine was WAY better prepared than back when Crimea was invaded, the fact that Zelenskyy turned out to have way more backbone than expected and the fact that Biden's staff played the intelligence game damn near perfectly (sharing it into the public so it could be verified really put doubters and sympathizers on the back foot) came together to make this an absolute mess for Putin.
- alaricus 4y ago
  Resistence has been fierce in areas like Kiev where the majority is ethnic Ukrainian. But Russians made their large gains in the south where Russian culture and language is more widespread. For example Russians took Kherson without too much resistance. It's a city where almost half speak Russian as native language.

Did they? Or was it Western perceptions of the Russian intentions? Ukraine is a huge country with 40 million people. One does not simply take over that in a few days.

seanw444 4y ago

One does, according to HN armchair tacticians.

NicoJuicy 4y ago
That's not what is said. They are referencing to the "planned" articles that appeared on Russian state media days after the invasion. Additionally, Russia thought that they bribed enough politicians to willingly hand over the cities to them. The resistance was obviously more fierce than expected. This isn't about HN armchair whatever. This is known news if you're following the situation as many here do...
- alaricus 4y ago
  > This is known news if you're following the situation if you are following the situation from Western media outlets. The West has a stake in this fight and the reporting is far from unbiased.
  - taskforcegemini 4y ago

bsder 4y ago

I think Russia did expect to take the country quickly but expected to do so mostly by suborning the leadership. Russia did get at least one Ukranian city surrendered to them, for example. I don't think Russia expected to have to genuinely take Ukraine militarily. They haven't had to do that in any prior invasions, and there wasn't much reason to believe that they'd have to do it here, either. The fact that Ukraine was WAY better prepared than back when Crimea was invaded, the fact that Zelenskyy turned out to have way more backbone than expected and the fact that Biden's staff played the intelligence game damn near perfectly (sharing it into the public so it could be verified really put doubters and sympathizers on the back foot) came together to make this an absolute mess for Putin.

alaricus 4y ago
Resistence has been fierce in areas like Kiev where the majority is ethnic Ukrainian. But Russians made their large gains in the south where Russian culture and language is more widespread. For example Russians took Kherson without too much resistance. It's a city where almost half speak Russian as native language.