Earlier quoted context omitted.
My guess is two reasons: He vastly underestimated Ukrainian resistance And Ukrainian resistance has been supported by Western intelligence and weapons Putin's day 1 plan was to seize most of the airfields and assassinate the president. These were attempted by trained forces and could have worked. The Ukrainians managed to stop them all. I'm sure these included cyber attacks we haven't heard about. After that the Ukra…
And Yes men and fearful underlings lied about the real state of affairs regarding preparedness, quality of equipment, training, enthusiasm, expenditures, etc. And Russia is corrupt to the core. Funding for training, equipment, maintenance, planning: stolen.
How did their preparedness degrade so much in only a few years with no indication of Russian military bureaucratic breakdown from the outside?
I'd like to see satellite images of the Russian troop buildup on the border and in Belarus and see if there's any signs of the incompetence and lack of coordination we're seeing in the field.