The Ukraine war is most certainly not going according to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan — or indeed, according to any of the revisions of the plan that the High Command in Moscow has had to make during eight months of hard fighting. A defiant Ukraine is firmly set on defeating the aggression, and the united (far beyond Russian calculations) West is committed to supporting Kyiv all the way. The contours of Ukrainian victory have become distinguishable through the proverbial fog of war, but the scope, timing, and resonance of a Russian defeat remain obscured.
