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 surre

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.