And a fat lot of good that experience seems to have served him.
He won his war, he did exactly what G.H.W. Bush told him to do and liberated Kuwait. Zachowon failed to win his war.
"Don't listen to the actual military intel guy, listen to the guy who's only knowledge comes from reposting twitter posts from random dudes, and who's been predicting the war is nearly over and Ukraine is on the verge of defeat since the war started"......yeah, no.
The war is practically over. Ukraine's military and industry is broken. The only choice they have is an honorable peace, ceding Kherson Oblast, most of Zapohrizia Oblast, Donetsk Oblast, and Luhansk, in return for having Russia leave Kharkiv Oblast. They keep Odessa Port, their main industrial cities and ore regions, and can get their farmers out to plant and bring the refugees home. Its a good deal and Putin would likely sign it over the objections of the Duma. He walks away with a clear victory, and Ukraine stays functionally intact.
The other option is to die as martyrs, immolating the country as Putin takes his time to work the nation over and drive millions more west as refugees, causing more economic damage to the EU which stripped itself bare of its reserve stocks to send aid. Given the EU is already fracturing from dealing with Covid, the longer the war lasts, the faster they crumble.
Your inability to understand how Russia fights and wins wars is not my problem. If Zachowon can't be bothered to read publications on the Soviet Based Doctrine the US Army made in the late 80s, that is on him. People like Armchair Warrior will beat on him, because people like Zachowon lose wars.
I was clear from the beginning that Kyiv was a double feint, it was quite obvious just from the Terrain and the forces allocated to it vs the South. There was also every indication Russia was employing encrypted radios and satellite uplinks, from photos, and the tendency of Ukraine to claim they killed a General only for them to show back up alive later. Russia also deployed large numbers of decoys, including inflatable trucks to create the infamous convoy which they moved around with a mixture of real trucks.
Oh and remember all those UkA commandoes in the first 2 weeks posting tiktoks? Disappeared after 2 weeks because they were essentially light infantry up against roving mechanized kill teams that fixed them in place and pounded them.
Note the Russians easily broke contact and withdrew in good order and entrained to Donbass and Kharkiv Front where they are once again in combat, without the UkA being aware of it or able to pursue. They were able to do that because the UkA lost the bulk of its AFVs and artillery, the majority of their fuel, an the bulk of their ammo. Their commandoes suffered unsustainable causalities attacking Russian Convoys, and civilian insurgents got shredded. Now the UkA in the north is a largely immobile force with technicals, an odd AFV or two, and little artillery that has little ability to move during the day and at the mercy of Russian Night Aviation if they travel in too large of a convoy. They are thus unable to help in any way with regards to the south.
Russia on the other hand can move freely during the day, and pound all day and night with artillery without having to worry about counterfires or CAS very much. With is a massive firepower advantage the Ukrainians can't counter.
Also the final clue about Kyiv not being the focus is Russia simply not having set up collaborators or sent the victory flags to V and O groups. Troops in the North were allowed to loot unlike in the south where it would be bad for business.
If none of that makes sense to you, well it does to the Russians who win wars and have a long tradition of warfare that is unique to them and works.
