The larger point is that Russia simply cannot do what the USA did to Iraq or Libya in Ukraine because Ukraine will forever and always be next door.
Imagine the US taking out all of Mexico. What'll happen next? All of Mexico (even more than today) will be flooding into the US, but angrier than ever. And the US will have to spend trillions rebuilding Mexico if they don't want the world's worst shit hole as neighbor for the next thousand years.
Considering everything in Ukraine was built by the USSR, this is even more the case. Every powerplant destroyed in Ukraine is one that originally came out of Moscow's budget and will have to be rebuilt by the same budget.
So Russia is trying to win (not territory, but strategic security) by doing the least amount of damage possible. But the USA/NATO isn't allowing Russia an easy win and is forcing Russia to do what they never wanted to do -- destroy Ukraine.
Because it's not the war that will bankrupt Russia, but the rebuilding everything that comes after if all of Ukraine is destroyed
Unless Russia builds a wall 100 feet high and tells the EU that the radioactive shit hole formerly known as Ukraine is now their problem
The larger point is that Russia simply cannot do what the USA did to Iraq or Libya in Ukraine because Ukraine will forever and always be next door.
Imagine the US taking out all of Mexico. What'll happen next? All of Mexico (even more than today) will be flooding into the US, but angrier than ever. And the US will have to spend trillions rebuilding Mexico if they don't want the world's worst shit hole as neighbor for the next thousand years.
Considering everything in Ukraine was built by the USSR, this is even more the case. Every powerplant destroyed in Ukraine is one that originally came out of Moscow's budget and will have to be rebuilt by the same budget.
So Russia is trying to win (not territory, but strategic security) by doing the least amount of damage possible. But the USA/NATO isn't allowing Russia an easy win and is forcing Russia to do what they never wanted to do -- destroy Ukraine.
Because it's not the war that will bankrupt Russia, but the rebuilding everything that comes after if all of Ukraine is destroyed
Unless Russia builds a wall 100 feet high and tells the EU that the radioactive shit hole formerly known as Ukraine is now their problem