> Why'd they initially plan to capture Kiev in 3 days then
They went in with 90k troops, that barely enough to "take" even a smaller city like Kiev. The goal was to enforce a political outcome to this acute crisis outside of a total war. Initially, this succeeded with the peace talks in Istanbul and Russian troops retreated. Finally, the West (Boris Johnson, Victoria Nuland, Biden) promised full NATO support for Ukraine and Zelensky smashed the peace treaty into the trashcan. That's when the Ukraine army started its counter-offensive and pushed the Russians far back into the eastern parts of the Donbass. That's when Russia commenced to a slow and grinding war of attrition with the goal of removing the russophobic Zelensky regime propped up by the West.
> Why do they have to recruit in prisons and offer ungodly recruitment bonuses then
The recruitment bonuses are actually quite good, that's why many Russians, especially from the poorer regions, agreed to participate. Every Russian family lost members in the Great Patriotic War, they know who they're fighting. Recruiting in prisons is actually not just a Russian thing, it also happens in Ukraine (where they're snatching people off the streets) and many other countries in conflict situations. That's really not unusual.
> Why does Putin maintain his maximalist goals and requests the entirety of the Donbass he failed to take as a precondition for a ceasefire then
The economically most important regions of the Donbass are by now already taken by Russia. There is not much between the western edges of the Donbass and Kiev. Russia has no interest in a ceasefire, as a ceasefire only provides time for the West to re-arm and prepare for the next attack on Russia. The west shits on Russia since the fall of the Soviet-Union.
> People been saying that for three years. Any time now, you just wait
That's true, but many people couldn't expect how much support in weapons and money the West was and is actually willing to provide to Ukraine. Without this support this war of attrition would be over by now.
They went in with 90k troops, that barely enough to "take" even a smaller city like Kiev. The goal was to enforce a political outcome to this acute crisis outside of a total war. Initially, this succeeded with the peace talks in Istanbul and Russian troops retreated. Finally, the West (Boris Johnson, Victoria Nuland, Biden) promised full NATO support for Ukraine and Zelensky smashed the peace treaty into the trashcan. That's when the Ukraine army started its counter-offensive and pushed the Russians far back into the eastern parts of the Donbass. That's when Russia commenced to a slow and grinding war of attrition with the goal of removing the russophobic Zelensky regime propped up by the West.
> Why do they have to recruit in prisons and offer ungodly recruitment bonuses then
The recruitment bonuses are actually quite good, that's why many Russians, especially from the poorer regions, agreed to participate. Every Russian family lost members in the Great Patriotic War, they know who they're fighting. Recruiting in prisons is actually not just a Russian thing, it also happens in Ukraine (where they're snatching people off the streets) and many other countries in conflict situations. That's really not unusual.
> Why does Putin maintain his maximalist goals and requests the entirety of the Donbass he failed to take as a precondition for a ceasefire then
The economically most important regions of the Donbass are by now already taken by Russia. There is not much between the western edges of the Donbass and Kiev. Russia has no interest in a ceasefire, as a ceasefire only provides time for the West to re-arm and prepare for the next attack on Russia. The west shits on Russia since the fall of the Soviet-Union.
> People been saying that for three years. Any time now, you just wait
That's true, but many people couldn't expect how much support in weapons and money the West was and is actually willing to provide to Ukraine. Without this support this war of attrition would be over by now.