Almost everyone underestimating Putin.
Probably there’s more than meets the eye. For sure a lot of wishful thinking in western views.
Putin never lost a war.
Not defending him, just noting that the “good guys” don’t always win.
The fact that he's that scared of COVID shatters the tough guy persona. The fact that he was seemingly ok with these pictures going public shows that he has no sense of how silly and bad this looks.
[1] https://nz.news.yahoo.com/photos-putin-keeps-his-distance-du...
Ukraine is a different beast. Its a country with a regular army that has spent the last 8 years undergoing a rapid modernization process for said army. They have 44 million people, and lots of western support.