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Russia had been warned that an attack was coming, but they "didn't take it seriously", an expert at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) told Sky News.
Senior fellow at the institute, Mark Galeotti, added that the attack happened very quickly.
"However you play it, this is something Putin cannot ignore. It is the first invasion of Russian territory since World War II. And for someone who had claimed that everything was going according to plan in Ukraine, this clearly draws a line." he said.
Galeotti added: "It seems that Russia had advance warning that an attack was going to happen, but they thought it would be a short, small strike. They clearly didn't take it seriously."
When it came to military objectives, Galeotti said that Ukraine "wanted to withdraw troops from other fronts".
And when it came to the political objectives, the expert said that: "it was not just a chance to humiliate Putin, but also a chance to convey to Europe and the USA that the war is not over yet".
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