Six months on from Vladimir Putin’s invasion and Ukraine remains free, independent and defiant – if not yet reunited and free of its unwelcome guests.
Had things gone to the Kremlin’s plan, Ukraine would by now be occupied, pacified and going through a process of Russification and Russianisation, erasing all trace of Ukraine’s distinctive culture and identity. Parts of the country would be ceded to Russia and the rest placed under the care of a compliant regime, similar to Alexander Lukashenko’s in Belarus, steadily steering Ukraine’s economy and foreign policy in the interests of Russia.
President Zelensky was supposed to have fled to the West, and his army to have deserted in the face of overwhelming Russian force. President Putin would, so he dreamed, be welcomed as a liberator by teeming crowds of joyful Ukrainians in Maidan Square.
