by Paul Craig Roberts, Paul Craig Roberts:

As readers know, I am a critic of Putin’s “limited military operation” in Ukraine.  It was eight years late, and its limited objective is unrealistic. Putin needed to occupy Kiev the minute he saw the US coup unfolding.  Failing this, he needed to reincorporate Donbass in 2014 prior to its partial occupation by neo-Nazi militias and Ukrainian military.  He failed to act in a timely fashion because he was deceived by the West with the Minsk Agreement, which was a delaying tactic  to keep Russia at bay until the US had built and equipped a Ukrainian Army.

I understand why the Kremlin limited its intervention last February to clearing the Independent Donbass Republics of Ukrainian forces. Putin did not invade Ukraine, because he did not want widespread death and destruction in Ukraine, long a part of Russia with extensive intermarriage and mixing of populations.  Where the Kremlin failed was in not realizing that Washington would not permit the conflict to be limited to the clearing of Donbass.