So Russia is at war with Ukraine, a war of naked aggression. In some manner the war has continued from 2014, beginning with the invasion of Crimea, then the Donbas pseudo-insurgency. Now it is naked invasion. The battalion deep strike teams didn't work out so well in the early invasion.

The slow invasion from 2014 to 2022 has had two effects: Ukraine probably suspected what was coming and prepared, and has a well trained and well equipped military. Russia has been preparing in the usual way, with top down metrics, the reporting of which is much easier than the meeting. Since the punishment for not meeting is the same as the punishment for lying, lying appears to be the standard tactic. 

The fish rots from the head. Putin's justification for the invasion has been a farrago of lies from the beginning. The example he set is the practice that his subordinates have implemented. 

Ukraine was a charter member of the UN. Russia wasn't. The pretense that Ukraine has never been independent from Moscow is a lie. It was the free Cossacks that took Ukraine from the Turks/Tatars, and they allied with Russia at times, with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at other times. 

I can hope that Ukraine does to Russia what Eritrea did to Ethiopia: Dictate the terms of peace in the capital of the enemy. It takes a great deal of hoping to believe that might happen. That would be what is just, and what would be best for Russia. 

Oh, and I have, once again been banned from Facebook. This time for suggesting that if some politicians were hung from lampposts, the remaining politicians would realize they had skin in the game. Of course this is a historical reference to the French Revolution. "Aristos a la lanterne!"