Why Russia's quick-collapse assumption failed in Ukraine

Russian planning is presented as a case of assuming the enemy would collapse instead of preparing to overcome resistance. Early columns moved as though they were already in secured territory, exposing well-trained formations and personnel to losses that hindered later adaptation. The comparison with 2014 matters because Ukraine had spent eight years fighting, reorganizing its armed forces, and developing a stronger national identity, while Russia's own military had continued to decay. A campaign that might have faced less organized resistance in 2014 encountered a different defender in 2022. The general lesson is that an attacker cannot make enemy collapse its opening planning assumption.