I do remember Kyiv. Russia sent in a small force and got Zelenskyy to the negotiating table. If not for the US->UK scuttling those talks, the invasion would have ended after the Istanbul agreement was worked out.

I think Russia massively underestimated how much control over Ukraine the US has and how much resistance Russia would have from the non-Eastern parts of Ukraine. They also clearly didn't have a "ready-to-go Plan B" if those first negotiations broke down.

That last one resulted in Russia being caught more than a bit flat-footed as evidenced by their lack of clear strategy in the immediate months after the breakdown of the Istanbul negotiations.

The fact that you constantly accuse anyone of posting anything remotely objective about the Ukrainian conflict as being paid by Russia says a whole lot more about you than it does about me.