Is Military Victory In Ukraine Already A Defeat For Putin?

Putin has already lost the respect of most if not his manhood in waging a foolish war & even if he brings Ukraine to its knees he’s facing a no-win outcome as heroic Ukranians have already castrated his grand scheme of a greater Russia.

So suggests Holman Jenkins in “The Putin Endgame.” Argued the WSJ columnist: Putin’s “regime is destroying itself over a fictional threat of NATO aggression … I’ve been wondering for weeks now how Mr. Putin can survive his Ukraine gambit. His basic bet failed a month ago, when Volodymyr Zelensky, Joe Biden & Olaf Scholz refused to concede Ukraine’s independence to appease the Russian dictator. That ended any chance of an outcome that actually strengthens him. A military victory in Ukraine now will be indistinguishable from defeat. He will have to slaughter his way to Kyiv and Western public opinion will make sure economic sanctions are a one-way ratchet. Ukrainians will fight on and suffer more, with the consolation that a great [Ukraine] nation, [not Russia shades of USSR] is being born. (In the meantime, if you thought China, which could have prevented all this, was ready for global responsibility, you’re over that now.)"

Maybe all is true. If so, even a Putin “win” at waging war will turn out to be sort of like the UN’s 141-5 vote in the General Assembly to condemn his invasion: Of more “Symbolic” value than real.

Davd Soul