ukraine forces so that russia can focus on what it really wants which is establishing greater control in the eastern donbas region where russia has recognized the independence of two break aways, so-called peoples republics. now, this is very different to what governments and experts around the world think russia has been trying to do here. the common analysis is that russia thought it could invade this country, conquer this country very quickly, invading across a number of fronts, quickly overwhelming ukraine's defense and then very swiftly also taking the key cities. of course the reality has been very different for much of this war so far. russia's advance has been described as stalled. they're still yet to achieve any obvious key military goal. so what could all this be about? it could just be domestic messaging to a russian audience. it could yet in itself be an deliberate action or distraction