EGO... pure ego. Merkle was in power for 16 years making her the junior-partner in Putin's invasion. He has been in power for 20+. 10 years is the limit. After ten years you get diminishing returns from your leaders. Facts don't matter after 10 years. You begin to drink your own kool-aid. That's what Putin did. He was either unaware or disregarded the facts. Probably some of both. He was never going to win this war. Ukraine, with minimum western support, still would have beat Russia in about 5 years. It would have been horrific, but they still would have done it.