Good morning. Welcome, Axios today. It's Wednesday, February 22. I'm Nyla Boudou. Here's

what we're covering today. Biden's fiery message of freedom and democracy. Plus,

Fatter Paychecks could be in your future. But first, today's one big thing. Putin's

missteps and miscalculations with his war on Ukraine.

President Joe Biden was in Warsaw yesterday. And the Washington Post reported the Polish

Capitol had been taken over by the president's visit. One year after the bombs began to fall,

Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine. Ukraine is still independent and free.

Biden addressed a cheering crowd of thousands that included Polish citizens in Ukrainian refugees.

When President Putin ordered his tanks to roll into Ukraine, he thought we would roll over.

He was wrong. You rank the Ukrainian people are too brave. America, Europe,

a coalition of nations from the Atlantic to the Pacific. We were too unified. Democracy was too

strong instead of an easy victory he perceived and predicted. Putin left with burnout tanks

and Russia's forces in delay in disarray.

Tegzamin Putin's year of miscalculations, as we approach the one-year milestone of the war in

Ukraine, were joined now by Axios' world editor Lauren Whitney Gottbreath. LW, let's start at the

beginning of this war. What did Putin think would happen on February 24th, 2022?

What Putin thought would happen was that Kiev would fall within 48 hours. That was also the

expectation of the West. That was largely based on a lot of other miscalculations that had happened

in the lead up to the war about how prepared both Ukrainian and the Russian forces were heading into

this invasion. How prepared were Ukrainian forces coming into this? They were a lot more prepared

than anyone expected. I also think a lot of it had to do with they had a lot more will than I

think a lot of people had expected drive to push back this invasion. That is something I think a

...