I read some experts (armchair or otherwise) and they seem to agree it's a standard military strategy - create an attack strong enough to force the enemy to real

I read some experts (armchair or otherwise) and they seem to agree it's a standard military strategy - create an attack strong enough to force the enemy to reallocate troops from the main attack directions. The details here is that Russia has no forces available quickly enough to react. The exception is their air force and AFU came prepared for that. Their AA defence is unusually strong and it shows in Russian aircraft losses. The other (pretty obvious) detail is that it's the enemy home territory which just makes Putin look bad.