The special military operation was supposed to be over in a matter of weeks, how did that work out for Russia? A lightning raid that failed with the battle of Hostomel Airport decisively won by Ukraine, that was the real failure of the war in February 2022.

Then there was the convoy to Kiev failure, beginning on the 24th of February 2022, the convoy from Belarus headed south towards Kiev. Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko had stated publicly that Ukraine would be taken in two to four days. As a Putin fanboy, his predictions are looking pretty silly now, the Kiev convoy was defeated at Hostomel. As Russia had assembled a large force in Belarus, Lukashenko had sought personal gain, he had better think himself lucky Joe Biden had prevented the Ukrainians from any counter offensives in Belarus to drive the Russians out.

Now Finland has joined NATO and expanded the border northwards, another strategic failure for Putin who had claimed the war was to eradicate NAZIs and stop the expansion of NATO. What has happened is NATO has expanded its border with Russia and Finland, Sweden and Norway feel threatened. Whilst Poland was always NATO, this country has taken the threats seriously and built its military might to more than purely defensive, Russia might think about trying to take Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania but they would not get any further.

Now Ukraine has counter-attacked and taken territory internally in Russia. Now NATO has increased military budgets, the fear of the Russian military has diminished with Russia being the second best military in the world to the second best military in Ukraine and Putin had better be concerned that they do not become the second best military in Russia.What Ukraine has done is demolish the Russian military threat, they do have aspirations for further military conquest but first need to rebuild their forces. If Europe has any foresight, they have seen what has happened over the past three years and will increase military expenditures and capability.