No , I don't believe it now . But that was the plan at the beginning. It is obvious . To have all of Ukraine under control. To have a puppet president, government etc etc ... but something went wrong and now it's pure madness.
I'm pretty sure he only ever wanted to annex the East, if he was going for the whole kit and caboodle he'd have sent in his A team from the beginning with the kind of 'shock and awe' tactics we're now seeing.
Having said that Ukraine have fought bravely, but can we at least negotiate for peace? Peace was right on the table back in April by all accounts before Boris was parachuted into Kiev with a clear message that the West wanted Zelensky to keep fighting. Nice for the West, no dead bodies, nice for the MIC but very bad for the Ukrainian people.
And now we have the very real possibility of some type of nuclear engagement.
Zelensky has to give some type of concession here because I really do fear for the welfare of the Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the East if Russia were just to leave. The slaughters will be unimaginable but there will be no-one with a Ukrainian flag in their FB bio calling for their safety.
Equally a concession would ideally get Putin out of Ukraine, (he must be desperate to go,) and save many Ukrainian lives from the relentless bombing campaign that looks like it will come next.