The Putin’s War in Ukraine

The war Russia waged in Ukraine appears strange in many respects – one witnesses teetering operations from both sides, tedious pitch battles Russia and Ukraine strive to exhaust each other with, exchange of cautious infrastructure destroying strikes as if both fear to not go too far, etc. On the other hand, this is a “classic” limited or re-calibrating war as Kissinger would define it, at that, one of the sides is a super nuclear power. One cannot comprehend it outside the nuclear context that engages America and Russia. The only possible alternative to avoid the Armageddon is a balance of power solution, to say, a new world order that takes into account legitimate Russia’s geostrategic interests in realpolitik sense. The gist of the problem is that Russia has to achieve strategic goals through a limited conventional war. The critical question comes to the fore by itself – is Putin intent to seriously or, even so, does not he lack capacity to carry an unqualified victory over Ukraine?