Putin tried softly softly, hoping to preserve life and infrastructure, go have a look at what he did to Grozny, he can make Ukraine look like Syria visually in a week, for all the bad press he's getting he's gone in soft, and all the EU are doing by arming the Ukrainians is having him up the ante as we are now seeing, I dont see why they would do this, the outcome will be the same, just the conditions of the occupation will change, and more people will die, and we will all be suffering nuclear fallout before he surrenders for war crimes, Ask the chechens a far more formidable fighting force than the Ukrainians how things went. Putin is a warlord, Biden and Boris are climate warriors, this is not a contest, he will use small battlefield nukes soon to send a message west if the idiots at the EU dont just accept that unfortunately the best outcome for the world is allowing him rights over Ukarines future security, idiots are starting a nuclear war by pushing NATO down his throat. NATO needs to back off and allow him his buffer zone or this will escalate. Its already cost them Ukraine others will follow. NATO needs to consider Russias defensive position in respect of its continuing expansion east. Would US allow Mexico to sign defensive treaty with Putin and have Russian missiles pointed north from Tijuana, Juarez, I dont think so.