This is not journalism.  This is a hit piece IMHO.  Do they expect Putin to run out into the middle of a hot battlefield?

Well, it's the Daily Beast, so what can you expect?  I don't even know for sure, but I assume TDB is basically an opinion site, like Vox.

I like how all of these glorified blogs claim to have the real truth but their sources are "told to us by a few people."  Come on give me a break.  

Is Putin an angel?  No.  Is invading Ukraine horrible, yes.  But is misleading people into believing that a poor backwards eastern European nation can actually defeat the world's pre-eminent nuclear power in a toe to toe slug fest any better?  People are dying because of this false hope.  Useless, needless, senseless deaths.  I don't usually agree with Henry Kissinger, but he is correct when he advises Ukraine to cede territory to Russia and sue for peace.  The longer this goes, the worse it is going to be on Ukrainians.  Russia is just going to keep ramping up until the Ukes cry uncle.  NATO is just using them to bleed Russia.  The sooner Ukrainians see this, the better it will be for them.

Yeah, I think that Putin is clearly in the wrong here, as virtually any unprovoked invasion of a foreign nation will make your side the very bad side.  I think everyone agrees that being the villain in a war is one of the most grievous crimes a country can commit. 

However, from the perspective of Ukraine and the West, it seems to me that this was could have been avoided, and yes, it can probably be stopped and at least partially remedied through international diplomacy.  It really seems to me that the left is using Ukraine as a proxy to obsess over Russia, for some unclear reason.  I get it that Putin is bad here, but they're making him out to be a comical villain of sort.

Whenever the left tries too hard to push a narrative, you know something is amiss, and red flags pop up like crazy.

Putin is not any more a villain than the corrupt Ukrainian government who shelled ethnic Russians killing upwards of 14,000 in the Donbas.  In all reality, they brought this disaster upon themselves.  They should have invited Russia or the UN into the Donbas to help keep the peace.  Instead, they puffed their chest out and dared Russia to intervene militarily...which Putin was more than happy to oblige.