Good points, comrade. I've been trying to purge my brain of all the western bullshit that's in there and this really helps.

I've been increasingly realizing over the last couple days that the Russian focus isn't really on Ukraine, the fronts, the military maneuvers, etc in and of itself anymore - and maybe never really was. Like, sure, it's a major part of their ongoing strategy obviously, so much so that they were willing to take the massive amount of sanctions for it even if they were autarkic enough that it wouldn't collapse their country, and I don't wanna be seen as coping in the face of a few Russian L's here and there in this lull before Phase 2 begins by saying "oh a-actually it doesn't matter", but it really is "just" a subsection of the wider goal of breaking US hegemony - even if that's only explicitly for the goal of boosting Russia (as opposed to some socialist or communist plan of doing it for the sake of the world proletariat or whatever).

That's why I (and many other socialists) are increasingly shying away from the military moves in Ukraine as the interesting part, and focussing more on the massive global economic and diplomatic consequences. And because those consequences are so dire for the future of US hegemony, that's why you're still seeing places like Reddit or just the media in general so focussed on the military part still - as well as for the reason that violence and war gets you more clicks - because there's not really any way to bend them other than to say "b-but Russia will be hurt more than we will be! and China, they'll, uhh, China will, uh, uhh ... Uighurs!"

Take it from me, who's been sifting through media and news for the last week or so - the Russian and Chinese media is more focussed on the economic side of things, whereas western media is more focussed on how the invasion itself is doing, as well as the standard culture war shit and recent big news like the Oscars and all that.