Here's what's happening inside Putin's circle of thugs, as revealed by the thugs themselves as they desperately try to escape getting scapegoated by their own boss-thug:

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/598397-do-reported-russian-whistleblower-accounts-indicate-a-crack-in-putins

And here's an expose on what Putin hopes to achieve through unscrupulous "diplomacy," given that he cannot achieve it on the battlefield, again as leaked by his own thugs:

https://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2022/03/16/russias_plan_to_negotiate_a_victory_from_within_822199.html

Ethics aside and just looking at the technical side of things, Russia made two significant military blunders. Not having twenty first century communication technology and a complete lack of modern air warfare doctrine. Ironical that Ukraine is calling for the US to start fighting Russian planes when they are hardly there to begin with. Russia has no air superiority whatsoever. Much of the rest of that military disaster that is the ground campaign follows from those two issues. An enemy that knows your every move and lack of timely intel/reconnaissance 

Two lessons they need to learn… some day.

I guess all the "Close the sky" stuff is useful to just have Westerners pressure their governments for it, but the government can give everything but that and it'll be ok.

 

More war this way...