Putin Cannot Survive Another Year Like 2024
What was planned as a three-day “special operation” has turned into a three-year nightmare. Even Vladimir Putin didn't realize what a Potemkin village Russia had become.
by Richard Kemp
January 2, 2025
As 2025 begins, pessimism about Ukraine’s fate hangs in the air and the stench of appeasement on the wind. I find myself mystified as to why, for it should be clear that the conflict has so far been an ignominious failure for President Vladimir Putin.
Unable to achieve the objective of subjugating his far smaller neighbor, he has instead inflicted enormous suffering on his own country and devastated its economy while undermining Russian prestige and strategic influence around the world.
Lest we forget that what was planned as a three-day “special operation” has turned into a three-year nightmare. Russia has made only limited territorial gains and has been incapable of capturing much more of Donetsk Oblast in the east. Last year’s grand offensive to establish a buffer zone at Kharkiv to protect Russian territory only seized a few kilometers along the border. Missile attacks aimed at plunging Ukraine into near-cons…
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