OTHER THAN THAT, HOW'S IDENTITARIANISM WORKING OUT?

Amid the burnt-out ruins of what was once a city of half a million people, the Russians can celebrate this Pyrrhic victory. But who, other than the dictator's most fanatical followers, will be impressed by such a spectacle? Putin's triumph is as empty as his threats.

Nothing demonstrates this more clearly than the decision by Finland and Sweden to end their long-standing neutrality by joining NATO. Though the fast-tracking of the Scandinavians may be galling for Ukrainians, it represents a strategic defeat for Russia of historic proportions. Other vulnerable states, such as Georgia and Moldova, may join the queue. If the aim of the invasion of Ukraine was to intimidate the neighbours (and members) of the Russian Federation, it has utterly failed.

The most that can be said with any certainty at this point is that even at home, Putin no longer enjoys the nimbus of invincibility that was carefully cultivated by his propaganda machine. The catastrophe he has visited upon Ukraine is now threatening to engulf his own regime. Russians are watching aghast as one humiliation follows another: the retreat from Kyiv, the sinking of the Moskva and now the failure to break through in Donbas. The President may not care about the young soldiers left dead or missing on the battlefield, now estimated at 25,000 by the usually accurate Ukrainian military. But their families assuredly do.

Meanwhile the noose is tightening on Russia. Western sanctions grow ever tougher, with the EU now imposing an embargo on Russian oil. Even spiritual leaders are no longer exempt from sanctions: Kyrill, the Patriarch of Moscow, is now being targeted as one of the Kremlin's most odious toadies. Pope Francis may not be the only significant figure to voice criticism of NATO, but he is almost alone in wanting to visit Moscow to listen to Putin's tirades. Others prefer to make the pilgrimage to Kyiv, where the Orthodox Church has broken with Moscow. Even Lukashenko, Putin's ally in Belarus, is offering only verbal support. Russian isolation is anything but splendid.

It is getting lonely in the Kremlin. The Chief of Staff, General Gerasimov, dispatched last month to take charge the front, is reported to have been wounded in a devastatingly accurate missile strike on the Russian command HQ that killed dozens of other senior officers. Nine generals are known to have died so far in this war. A purge of unreliable army and intelligence officers is under way. The siloviki, or strongmen, of the Russian elite are rumoured to be considering a coup.

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