During the full-scale invasion of the sovereign state, the lauded “second army of the world” appeared to be much weaker than it positioned itself; it failed to advance because of the bad logistics, issues with encrypted communications and poor data exchange among detachments and service branches. Russia could not destroy Ukraine’s anti-air defenses and maintain full superiority in the air. Russian occupant troops are in poor psychological shape. Ukrainian army and the entire Ukrainian nation offer really furious resistance. After several weeks of fights, Ukraine’s military described Russian forces as a “sham army”. To prove these words, General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces showcased the captured Russian military vehicles: in Kherson region, Ukrainian troops took Chinese sidecar with Maxim machine gun that was widely used in the wars of the 20th century; tanks with boxes stuffed with soil for “better protection” and officer tablets with a notepad and a compass. 
The interrogations of Russian POWs (the number already reached 700) and phone conversations recorded by Ukrainian special services confirm that the Kremlin planned to capture Kyiv within three days and reach Lviv. On the fifth day of the invasion, the army was supposed to conduct a victorious March on Khreshchatyk. The occupants brought parade uniforms and tanks in advance (the vehicles were previously observed on the Red Square). The awards for capturing Kyiv and Lviv were manufactured. 

As of March 23, General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces claims that the enemy losses amount to 15,600 people, 517 tanks, 101 planes, 267 helicopters, 47 anti-aircraft vehicles, 267 artillery systems, 1,578 armored vehicles, 1,008 cars, four ships/cutters, 15 special vehicles and 70 fuel tanks. On early march 23, forces of anti-aircraft defense downed two more planes over Kharkiv region.
The myth about Russian knights cracked, too. The Russians give up - one by one or by entire detachments. They escape to the Russian border, blowing up the bridges behind them so as not to return to combat.

The myth about “Russians never leaving their comrades” failed as well. Valeriy, the POW from the 6th company (led by Senior Lieutenant Mukhammedgaliev) called his mom when the SBU, the Security Service of Ukraine let him do so. “Putin betrayed us. Putin lied to us. He told us to advance. They tricked me. They sent us to kill civilians. Our people bomb cities. It’s a massacre, thousands of our men died. They are like fertilizers here, and they don’t even want to take their bodies back”. When his mother asked how he ended up in captivity, he replies: “My comrades left me. My tank broke and the commander of my platoon left me. He just left. If I resisted captivity, I would die”.

The SBU also intercepted a conversation between the occupant and his mother, as he called her from a phone that he stole from a local resident. Here’s the dialogue - as is.

“Hi, Mom. 331st regiment of VDV (Russian paratroopers), our commander is dead”.

“Oh, that’s Sukharev. I heard that, there are three-four more people from you regiment [who deceased]”.

“I’ve got some bad news for you. You’ve got the wrong numbers. It’s an entire battalion, some 600 people. We were framed”.

“By whom, how, where?”

“The generals sold all the information”.

“Holy mother of… Did they hurt you a lot?”

“Well, the entire second battalion. It’s one third from 1,500. They were killed”.

In this war, the Russian army command uses the same ways used by Stalin in the Second World War. It’s the so-called barrier troops. This is confirmed by a conversation between a Kadyrovite soldier (Chechen mercenary sent by pro-Russian leader Ramzan Kadyrov) and his relatives. When they ask him why would he go there, he replied: “I had to choose how to make money here and there”. Then he added: “Our task that we currently have is to send those lousy soldiers back to combat, when they escape the artillery strikes. Not much of a hard work. But their artillery hits hard, around the clock. We often hear “they killed one of ours”. Recently, they killed a special force commander. They seem to have infinite shells”.

Cartoon by Oleksiy KUSTOVSKY