Putin is deluded if he thinks Ukraine will quickly fold

So it’s war. For all Vladimir Putin may want to call it a ‘special military operation,’ as missiles rain down on targets all across Ukraine and tanks pour across its borders, this is nothing less than a full-scale act of unprovoked aggression, recognised as such everywhere except in one place: Putin’s head.

His pre-recorded announcement of the invasion was a case study in emotive button-pressing, claiming that Ukraine was a hotbed of Nazism, and that Russia was simply intervening ‘to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.’ In this, it was a logical progression from Monday’s address on the recognition of the pseudo-states of the Donbas, a rambling rant that was little more than a rehearsal of overblown grievances infused with a venomous dislike of the West and Kiev alike.