Vladimir Putin gives away that he knows he can’t win

Once it started to become clear last week that the Russian military was struggling badly in its attempt at overtaking Ukraine, we predicted that Vladimir Putin would try to distract from this by ramping up the cruelty of his attacks against Ukraine. Unfortunately we’ve turned out to be very right, as Putin is now making a point of bombing hospitals, schools, and maternity wards.

Notably, reporters in Ukraine are pointing out that even as these hideous strikes against civilians are ramping up, the Russian military has sharply pulled back on its attacks on Ukrainian military targets. In other words, Putin isn’t even trying to win at this point; he’s merely trying to punish the Ukrainian people, and perhaps trying to break their spirit.

Of course cruel attacks on civilians aren’t going to cause Ukraine to give up; if anything this is only going to strengthen the resolve of the Ukrainian people, and further motivate the world to provide support to Ukraine. Putin is, essentially, admitting he knows he can’t win. Now the question is just how badly he’ll try to punish Ukraine for the fact that he’s losing – and how much the rest of the world will do to try to curtail it all.