The obvious strategic move is to decapitate Ukraine and install a puppet. — RogueAI

Exactly. — ssu

It's not obvious at all for anyone with more than a surface-level understanding of the political reality in Ukraine.

You can't just "decapitate" a country that has been preparing for war for a decade with western backing. And you don't just "install a puppet" for the same reason.

A puppet regime would probably last about a day, and all you would have achieved is to give the foreign backers total control over the country.

The Kremlin typically declares these as their justification:

• bad bad NATO/West, needs to go away (†)
• bad bad Ukraine, needs deNazification + demilitarization (†)
• bad bad Ukraine, genocide on Russian-speakers

Apart from their usual bombing and such, the Kremlin

• employs heavy-duty crackdowns domestically
• employs heavy-duty crackdowns in occupied areas + Russification
• employs offenses against others externally (†)

You don't need access to classified information to exemplify their rhetoric (propaganda) and their hostile acts (unless you're in Russia perhaps).
House Trump exceeds them in sheer amount of (in-your-face) lying/misrepresentation, though.

Here's a snippet of examples of the first two and the last • above (†) in chronological order, that coherently go together:

• Russia’s Influence on Europe’s Far-Right Violent Extremism
• The children of Severomorsk are told that neighbouring Nordic countries support Nazism
• Two foreigners detained for displaying Nazi symbols in Pechersk, Kyiv, - police. PHOTOS
• Two foreign nationals detained in Pechersk district for displaying Nazi symbols
• From Moscow with chaos: How Russia unites extremists across Germany
• Chats: Wie Putin seinen Krieg der Desinformation auf Wiens Straßen führt
• In Austria, an FSB network disguised as "Ukrainian Nazis" was exposed
• Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting media corporation, Moscow, December 15, 2025

A short summary is that the Kremlin circle more or less says that the better part of Europe supports/is Nazist, and they've engineered some supposed evidence.
Anyone in Europe can tell how ridiculous it is; they're talking post-truth alternate world; plus, Kyiv is decidedly not a Nazi rule; the Russian government is worse than those they accuse.
There's a lot of such evidence, from or corroborated by several independent sources, spanning a decade (well, more).

But you are assuming Putin is sane, what he has done is insane. Certainly if Putin’s goal was to increase Russia’s security, what has resulted is the opposite. Not the moves of a smart, or sane man.

But you are assuming Putin is sane, what he has done is insane. — Punshhh

Exactly— you assume he’s insane. Which is so ridiculous it’s unbelievable it’s seriously argued.

When did he become insane exactly? When he invaded Ukraine? Or Crimea? Before then, what? Because nobody was saying he was insane back then.

Much like the use of “terrorist”, these have become codes for essentially anything we don’t like. Meanwhile, Mohammed bin Salman is considered sane, and gets invited to the White House. They’re just fine until they go against US interests. Then they’re evil maniacs bent on destroying the world.

Very good post.

I can’t imagine you really know anything about this topic either, but given your constantly bad guesswork I now question whether I’m right. Thanks anyway though— I definitely care about your approval.

Exactly— you assume he’s insane. Which is so ridiculous it’s unbelievable it’s seriously argued.

I don’t assume he’s insane, I’m considering it, because his actions appear to be the actions of someone with questionable sanity. I mean to say repeatedly for over a decade that NATO (a defensive alliance) is encroaching upon Russia. Leaving him no alternative but to invade a province of Ukraine, precipitating Sweden and Finland to join NATO. Alienating the Ukrainian people for generations to come which will push them into the arms of Europe and leave them with no alternative but to join NATO. To galvanise Europe into re-arming, following the post war settlement and ending the lucrative oil and gas deals with European countries.

Either he is insane, or he has another agenda. Like an agenda to cling onto power in Russia by claiming Russia is under attack, requiring the imposition of martial law and mass conscription. This requires an actual war to sustain, so he invades a Ukrainian province. The Russian people become powerless to oppose him, because the young men of Russia are being forcibly sent to the front lines to be killed in a war of attrition. A strategy rather like Assad’s regime in Syria, to literally destroy your own country to maintain power.

Either way, the sensible thing for Ukraine to do is fight and defeat the Russian invasion and ask Europe for assistance. While building alliances with Europe with the aim of becoming a EU member and joining the NATO alliance. Any alternative would be to throw the Ukrainian people to the wolves. Weaken Europe and encourage Putin to push his agenda further afield.