The Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in February last year has led to the biggest war in Europe in many generations. Within a month of the war’s onset, it had already become “a [foul]-up of historic proportions,” as one veteran Ukraine correspondent recently put it. Five weeks after the invasion, Putin’s spokesman claimed that Ukraine’s military was “largely destroyed.”But a war intended to undercut Ukraine’s leaders and NATO has instead strengthened both. Less noticed in the West is how Russia’s war has also alienated former Soviet nations such as Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Just before the war, the Scottish American historian Niall Ferguson wrote that Ukraine would receive “no significant military support from the West” and speculated on the location of Putin’s victory parade.

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Persons: —, Don, Vladimir Putin, Izvestia, Niall Ferguson Organizations: Wagner, NATO, Scottish, West Locations: Ukraine, Europe, Russian, Rostov, mull, Bulgaria, Romania, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Scottish American, Ukrainian