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.