The 2014 attack on the Crimea was an overwhelming success. Putin’s advisors fell over themselves to say that he was a genius and naturally he believed them. In 2016 Russia attack the eastern Ukrainian region, the Donbas. This is populated with Russian speaking people and Putin assumed that they would rise up and welcome a return to the ‘Motherland’. And some did. But the problem was that Ukraine fought back. There were years of attritional warfare, which are still going on today….Ten years later.

The podcast is 3 minutes long Putin’s magic wears off: 2016 the Donbas