Why doesn’t Russia simply invade Ukraine on a massive scale as in World War II and crush Ukraine in one Titanic campaign?

[A Point of view from Quora]

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Lived in Russia (1979–2015) Jan 16
Why doesn’t Russia simply invade Ukraine on a massive scale as in World War II and crush Ukraine in one Titanic campaign?

Why doesn’t Russia simply invade Ukraine on a massive scale as in World War II? Well, there is a simple answer - the vast majority of Russians have absolutely no wish or motivation to die on the Ukrainian front.

The thing is, it is not WWII. This conflict is absolutely irrational. The Russian and Ukrainian people were not enemies. People from Russia spent vacations in Ukraine, Ukrainian shows were on Russian TV, artists from Kyiv were making concerts in Moscow, etc.
Here is something unthinkable today - Zelensky performing at a New Year's concert in Moscow in 2013:

Russian propaganda later tried to “sell” the idea about the “nazis” in Ukraine, but in reality, probably nobody cares. It is not an existential threat that will cause masses of people to go to war. And when Putin announced a “mobilization” several years ago, this happened:

These people were in a line on the Russian/Georgian border to leave the country. And millions of people left Russia within days or weeks, which was sensitive for the country and the economy.

Nowadays (at the time of writing this post) the only way for a Russian government to hire more people, is to offer a lot of money. These banners are in many cities:

Here, 600,000 RUR is about 10–20 months of average salary that a person will get immediately after signing a contract. And 227,000 RUR will be paid monthly. And still, because the risk to die is obviously high, this is attractive only for people with a low income, in a desperate financial situation, etc. Apparently, the government can hire someone, but it does not work really well. And when the only motivation is money, I doubt that those people are really motivated soldiers.

So, the answer is “no”, the Russian army cannot invade Ukraine on a really massive scale. Most Russians are just not interested in this irrational war. There are other reasons, of course, like the lack of enough weapons for that, but firstly, the government would not easily be able to find people.

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