OTOH, poorly armed Filipinos assisted by a handful of US officers had recaptured or at least denied control (it varied) of half of Philippines by the time McArthur landed.
Zelenskyy will likely die a martyr. The French had no such national leader. The Native Americans were few, scattered, and mostly piecemeal. And so on.
Enforce policy from the air? What nonsense. Government / policing requires people on the ground, lots of them, even more when a populace is hostile. All targets. Or you can have a situation like Israel and the Palestinians. Israel does not control or govern the Palestinians. Instead, Israel perpetually has to beat ‘em back periodically, and often themselves (Israel) suffer barrages of missiles.
The Soviets could only partially control (roughly) 12 million Afghans, some of whom were on their side, with over 100,000 troops, and eventually left, bloodied. How many would it take in Ukraine? 200,000? More?
Sure, it “can” be done with brutal enough methods. But I believe the Russian people are civilized and will eventually end it.
A technocrat govt is indeed people on the ground, but they are prison wardens or water plant operators or electric ministry. They can and will be local civilians.
The policy enforced from the air is saying no to imported tanks and fighter aircraft. They get followed back to whatever domestic base and eliminated.
As for the Russian people, he polled 75% support a couple of weeks before Ukraine. He is clearly laser focused of Russia’s well being and 100% disinterested in the preferences of Russia’s enemies. Why would the Russian populace want someone who is not those things.