There is a big difference between 72 hours and never.
See: Russia ‘will not capture’ any of Ukraine’s cities, Ukranian defense minister says
Now, I have no inside knowledge or deep understanding of Ukrainian defensive capabilities, so cannot comment on who is right. But U.S. General Miley did suggest that Kiev could fall within 72 hours. That seems like a pretty bizarre statement to me; as I don’t think that even if Russia starts a conventional warfare operation next week, Kiev will be the objective.
On the other hand, I am concerned about Kharkov (second largest city in Ukraine) and Mariupol (which connects to Crimea).
Anyhow, the Ukrainian defense minister says the Russians “…will not capture either Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv, or any other city.” That may be true, as I still suspect we are not going to see any major conventional warfare in Eastern Europe this month. If there was, I do not have the knowledge to say that this would be the case. As Russian will have air superiority, hard to imagine they won’t be able to make some progress.
Old posts on the subject:
So Is Russia going to actually attack Ukraine? | Mystics & Statistics (dupuyinstitute.org)
Russian Invasions | Mystics & Statistics (dupuyinstitute.org)
The first post “Russian Invasions” was made on 5 December 2021. The next one was done on 22 January 2022. Over the last two months, nothing that has happened has changed my opinion.
Saddam had his nukes, such as they were, that he needed for breathing room. No breathing room, and being the top gun of a country can get kind of stale.
“Joining NATO” seems to be in that sort of territory. Russia I think has done a credible job of demonstrating the “NATO” doesn’t get you an invisible force field. Particularly as your one of your main power plants keeping that forcefield going (Germany) needs fuel for its plant.
So the Ukrainians, go back and forth on the NATO think to give themselves some wiggle room presumably. Seems kind of dangerous to poke the bear to me.