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Yes, I fully grasp the various versions and interpretations of the 2014 Maidan Square events. In the same vein the 2014 annexation of the Crimea and Donbas by Russian forces also has unacceptable issues.
Here we get into matters of principle and one principle I can get behind is the right of people to determine their own future. I do support Taiwan to remain independant of China (it won't last much longer I fear) , the right of Kosovo to be independant of Serbia and I do support the right of the Ukrainian people to determine their own future. Keeping consistency with that principle the people of Crimea and the Donbass are ethnic Russians who do not want to be subject to Ukrainians, and resistence has hardened since the oppression meeted out to them by the post colour revolution and Maidan coup events. At this stage the only peaceful future is a partition of Ukraine into ethnically stable parts . The Ukraine that remains will be only the Ukrainian majority oblasts. The rest will be partitioned off either into Russia or independant areas like the Donbass republics.
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Meanwhile, the Russians are struggling, to the point of looking pathetic, in their so-called ‘special operation’ inside the Ukraine. As I said before, this war is a far cry from the fancy dress goose-stepping parades on Red Square. And to follow the shooting war, there will be the (western) economic isolation and pariah status of the Russian Federation, with effects lasting for many years, probably decades.
You may be a victim of fake news, or I may be wrong. Do not compare the Russian way of war with the American "Shock and Awe" tactics. The American tactics are designed to minimise own forces casualties but gives little regard to minimising the impact on the civilian population. Where has that got them in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam? Quagmire and a hostile local population with eventual and certain failure.
On the other hand look at how the Russians performed in Syria supporting Assad. See that as the template. So good in fact that Syrians are falling over themselves to offer to help Russia. The Russians went in soft, and offer plenty of opportunity for civilians to evacuate in humanitarian corridors. Humanitarian corridors also offer the individual soldiers of Ukraine to desert and slip away. This is the observation of the military analyst Scott Ritter and Doug McGregor. That is part of the process. The Russians follow the Clausewitzian doctrine of war is politics by other means. Notice that the whole time there are negotiations going on simultaneously. The operation has already succeeded in getting the negotiations started. For 8 long years the Ukrainian govt hasn't even implemented the Minsk agreement but now they are being forced to negotiate. Whenever the negotiations stall you will see the heat turned up by the Russians. If the Russians were doing so badly you would not see the negotiations continue.
YOu have to judge a military operation by its objectives. We don't have clarity of the objectives, but I have presented an alternative view by which to judge its success or failure.