On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there was no use in setting an end date to what Russia calls special military operation in Ukraine, adding that its objective to liberate Donbas had not changed. Hein Goemans Going back to the analogy of the first world war one more time, what really changed attitudes in Germany was the collapse of Bulgaria and Austro-Hungary suing for peace. Then, only then did the German people find out that the war was lost because Ludendorff had set up a Ministry of Information saying, Were gonna win, were doing great. Were gonna win, were going to win. And finally, reality and truth hit him smack in the face that they couldnt win and they wouldnt win. What it will take is for the Russians to realise, for the Russian people, that they cant win this war. There can be a revolt against Putin, which we think is unlikely.

So, in recent years, Ukrainians have reached further into their history to argue that Ukrainian independence existed before the fall of the Soviet Union, or even the Russian Empire before it. Russian Communist supporters hold flags including one of the Soviet Union, as they take part in a rally next to the Karl Marx monument, marking the "Defender of the Fatherland Day," the former "Day of the Soviet Army", in downtown Moscow on Feb. 23. People often accuse Putin of wanting to resurrect the Soviet Union. Yet one could argue that Putin is more interested in gathering the lands of the Russian empire. In fact, in his speeches about Ukraine, he criticizes the Soviet leadership for creating Ukraine, the Soviet republic that later became an independent country, on a whim.