According to Hammelburg, it would not have been possible to take all of Ukraine. “What we hear the most is that he is still looking for the Donbas,” he says. «And it can also be deduced from the period in which the negotiations were still in progress; even the Minsk agreements presupposed such a solution».
The reason Russia attacked Ukraine in other places as well may have been a weakening technique, according to Hammelburg. This would discourage resistance. It is backed up by Eastern European correspondent Floris Akkerman, who argues that Putin’s underlying idea was also that Zelensky’s government would pick the eggs for their money and flee.
Without rudder
Because, he argues, a people without a leader does not know what to do and is rudderless. “Then everything collapsed, but Zelensky remained,” says Akkerman. And that was one of the decisive moments of the war. He showed in the video that he was still there, just like the government of him. that he beamed to the populace that they would.’
On the other hand, argues professor and founder of the Hague Center for Strategic Studies Rob de Wijk, Putin’s force was too small. “How would he get away with 150,000 soldiers?” he adds to Akkerman. “If I had to do it, I really would have taken only Donbas. It could have been done.’
Isolated
Furthermore, Putin’s military plans were effectively useless, argues De Wijk. If only the Donbass had been captured, Putin could have isolated Kiev. “But are you trying to take a city of 3.5 million with so few troops?” continues. ‘Of which 15,000 actually available? How do you want to do it?’
Europe journalist Geert Jan Hahn thinks he knows where Putin’s – and some of his associates in the Kremlin – botched plan is coming from. “Those few people probably believed in the subjugation of Ukraine and that the Ukrainians would behave in a slavish way like the Russians and the military,” he says.
“No balls, but it turns out to be disappointing”
Nothing could be further from the truth, however, and so it seems that Russia’s view of Europe – which would also be submissive – has definitely changed. De Wijk: ‘I’ve heard it several times in Moscow: they think Europe is a decadent mess that only deals with LGBTQ situations,’ he concludes. “Europe would be a weak club without balls, but this proves rather disappointing.”
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