Following on from the two replies before me, I deem any significant strategic success in Putin's efforts unlikely. We've dithered a lot, but Europe is starting to ramp up its arms production and it starts with an economy 30 times that of Russia, the alliance of the USA - possibly shaky, but let's not get ahead of ourselves - and more than 3 times the population.

On the other hand. let's not forget that Putin's wider ambitions are not open to question. He already annexed parts of Georgia and Moldova, and for years now his air force have been testing the defences of Poland, Sweden, Finland and Norway. He's been murdering people in the UK using WMD and launching cyber-attacks on most of the West. Outright conflict is, I infer, a foregone conclusion, and the broader strategic ambition obvious.

Putin's Russia needs to be put down.