Russian President Vladimir Putin has not achieved a single one of his strategic objectives after nearly 1,000 days of full-scale war against Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in his op-ed published by Foreign Affairs on Nov. 1.

"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky didn’t flee. Kyiv didn’t fall. And Ukraine didn’t fold," the Pentagon chief said.

Putin's original goals in his full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in early 2022 were to “liberate the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, "demilitarize and denazify" the country which in the Kremlin's eyes, envisioned the removal of its Jewish president, and the occupation of its capital city Kyiv.

After swiftly failing to achieve these goals, with the exception of Russian forces occupying all of Luhansk Oblast, Putin was forced to lower his ambitions and said Russia's "main goal" was to capture all of Ukraine's eastern Donbas area that also includes the adjacent Donetsk Oblast.

According to Austin, Russia has paid "a staggering price for Putin’s imperial folly," with more than $200 billion squandered. Russia has lost almost 700,000 troops killed and injured since Feb. 2022, Ukraine's General Staff reported.

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Kyiv Ind.