A long-expected invasion

Russia has been denied the quick victory it craved and stares at a long and painful period in the global doghouse

In spite of weeks of media briefings from officials in the United States warning that the Russian Federation was about to invade neighbouring Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin’s decision to send tanks and missiles across the border seemed nevertheless to have been a surprise. Perhaps it was the scale of the invasion that was a surprise because — in spite of the US’ insistence — most seemed to believe that at most the Russians would seek to extend the borders of the Russian-speaking separatist enclaves of the Donbass in eastern Ukraine, and perhaps connect them to the vulnerable Crimean peninsula with