Thing is though, Russia can use anything and everything that the West has done since the start of the invasion as propaganda - from Biden’s words to sanctions to sporting suspensions.

Take a comparison with the Libyan Civil War circa 10 years ago. David Cameron said Gaddafi had to be removed from power at every given opportunity. Ok yes, Nato was bombing Libyan in that conflict but Cameron wasn’t sending troops in to overthrow Gaddafi and ultimately Gaddafi was taken out by the rebels.

The White House shot themselves in the foot and could have left the statement ambiguous. What they did just projected confusion.

At least the mask is finally off, I suppose.

So much for diplomacy.

Have no issue with what Biden said... Thought it was pretty mild to what I would have personally said if I was in the same situation, but that's likely the Australian in me.
We need to tell Russia that the world is united in their resolve and what Russia is doing is abhorrent.

We need to remember we have just come off from a Trump era... And he said all sorts of crazy shit, daily, yet got constantly defended.

What? I'm 31 and I have never, in my life, seen a president get as attacked as Trump was, by the media, for everything he said/tweeted.

I'm in no way saying how much of that stuff I disagreed or agreed with, just pointing it out President Trump was not defended constantly, mostly, or even close to mostly by the groups that influence/manipulate the population. President Biden has like 80% of major American media defending most of what he says, on the other hand.

Anyway, back to the topic...

Key Takeaways

• Russian Eastern Military District (EMD) Commander Colonel-General Alexander Chayko may be personally commanding efforts to regroup Russian forces in Belarus and resume operations to encircle Kyiv from the west. The Kremlin is highly unlikely to have abandoned its efforts to encircle Kyiv but will likely be unable to cohere the combat power necessary to resume major offensive operations in the near future.
  
  
• Neither Russian nor Ukrainian forces conducted major operations northwest of Kyiv in the last 24 hours.
  
  
• Ukrainian forces counterattacking east of Brovary since March 24 successfully retook territory late on March 26.
  
  
• Ukrainian forces conducted limited counterattacks in Sumy Oblast on March 26-27.
  
  
• Fighting continued around Izyum in the past 24 hours, with little territory changing hands.
  
  
• Russian forces continued steady advances in Mariupol.
  
  
• Ukrainian partisans around Kherson continue to tie down Rosgvardia units in the region, likely hindering Russian capabilities to resume offensive operations in the southern direction.

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, March 27 | Institute for the Study of War

Yet he got constantly defended by millions... Even till this day.
You have just demonstrated it actually... Perfect example.

Will be interesting to know the costs and how Russia intends to fund this... They will likely be more combat effective due to better experience and equipment too.. Could get interesting.

That's one way to spin "we were getting our asses kicked so we've decided to retreat and redeploy our troops elsewhere, such as the Eastern/Donbas region" which is unfortunately the first smart move that Russia has done in this entire invasion, means they can focus fully on Donbas and just take that region which will be harder for Ukraine to counter.

Doesn't feel like a good thing for Ukraine, Russia will go from being stretched thin to concentrating all their forces in a certain location which should improve their logistics...Can only hope the retreat is as much of a disaster as most of their other efforts in this war and Ukraine can pick off as many as possible before they regroup in the Donbas.

Ultimately they'd lose taking Ukraine but that didn't look like it would happen anyway but with this they gain a much higher chance of managing to hold the Donbas region at least and gain something from this war.