"The Kremlin did not respond to requests for comment."

[speak easy]

Battle for Kyiv: Ukrainian valor, Russian blunders combined to save the capital

If the Russians could seize the seat of power in Ukraine, or at least cause the government to flee in panic, the defense of the country would quickly unravel. Moscow could install a puppet government.

That was the Kremlin’s plan.

Instead, what transpired in and around Kyiv in the ensuing 36 days would represent the biggest foreign blunder in the 22-year rule of Russian President Vladimir Putin. His assault on the city instantly reordered the security architecture of Europe against Moscow and isolated his nation to a degree unseen since the Cold War. To the surprise of the world, the offensive against the Ukrainian capital would end in a humiliating retreat, which would expose deep systemic problems in a Russian military he had spent billions to rebuild.

Ukrainian forces lacked sufficient weaponry, ammunition and communications equipment. But what they did possess was a profound will to fight — one that would extend beyond Ukrainian soldiers to ordinary civilians and, most important, to the president himself.

Those fighting to save Kyiv also benefited greatly from key miscalculations by the Kremlin, which set in motion a plan to invade Kyiv based on poor assumptions about the mettle of the Ukrainian military, the durability of the Zelensky government and the determination of the Ukrainian people to resist. In the end, the Russians wouldn’t take any territory inside Kyiv’s city limits, instead remaining stuck for weeks on the capital’s periphery before their retreat.

The Kremlin did not respond to requests for comment.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/interactive/2022/kyiv-battle-ukraine-survival/?itid=hp-top-table-main-t-2

[Chainfire]

1. Putin thought they he could bluff his way into Ukraine, the Ukrainians called him.

In the process, Putin exposed Russia's weakness to the rest of the world. It was a monumental blunder. The Ukrainians, much to their credit as a people and a nation, have done the same thing that the Finns did during the Winter War.

[BeyondGeography]

2. How goes the search for Natalya Vovk?

Speaking of Russian bullshit.