Paul Craig Roberts

For this reason, it is up to Putin to assemble the necessary force to quickly crush Ukraine and bring the conflict to an end.  https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/08/no_author/alarming-assessment-of-u-s-military-decline-and-ukraine-war-dangers-col-douglas-mcgregor/ 

The question I have been raising since the beginning of the conflict is why did the Kremlin fail to recognize that it is the slow pace of the special operation that is producing ever more serious provocations that are likely to end in nuclear war. I continue to raise this question because, like John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, I understand that no goal, no agenda, no ideology, no principle can justify a nuclear war.  Many of the West's provocations have crossed declared red lines with no response from Putin other than words, and it is the worsening provocations that eventually will go too far and produce a wider war, which would bring nuclear weapons into the conflict.

My concern is that the risks of escalation exceed the benefits, as Putin sees them, of a slow and ongoing conflict instead of a rapid defeat of Ukraine.  

In many ways Putin telegraphs to Washington  irresolution, confusion, weakness, and unwillingness to get the job done. Putin began his limited special operation before he had made the necessary military preparations, and Putin has had to fight most of the war with a small private army (until recently) known as the Wagner Group.  Putin wasted eight years permitting himself to be deceived by the West about the Minsk Agreement while Ukraine, but not Russia, built up a large army.

Putin has also made it clear that, despite proven Western hostility toward Russia, Russia has a small army and that Putin seems reluctant to enlarge it to a size, the very presence of which, would compel the end of the conflict.  Putin's thoughtless verbal attack on Evgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group made Putin seem vulnerable to a coup and poorly supported by the most effective Russian troops. Putin's endless gratuitous mistakes serve Washington, not Russia.  With Prigozhin's death yesterday in a mysterious plane crash, Putin's thoughtless assertion that Prigozhin was a traitor for attempting a coup will cause suspicion among Russian patriots that Putin was responsible for the crash that killed Russia's leading war hero.