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Putin has no ideology; he is, in fact, an intellectually unsophisticated person. His entire political worldview rests on two very simple narratives. 1/9

One is that the West is waging an eternal war against Russia. The other is that Ukraine is merely an instrument of the West in the current episode of the perennial anti-Russian war. 2/9

In my recent essay, I traced the origins of these ideas to Putin’s teenage years and his fascination with Soviet spy thrillers, showing how his KGB service and specific events later solidified that basic worldview: shekhovtsov.substack.com/p/putins-gen... 3/9

There have been various attempts to “intellectualise” Putin’s thinking by linking him to Ivan Ilyin, Alexander Dugin, and the like – but it is all utterly excessive: all of Putin’s statements about the West and the war ultimately boil down to those two simple ideas. 4/9

Yet despite their simplicity, these notions are deadly. If Ukraine is seen as an instrument of the West in its perennial war against Russia, then the Russian leadership views it as an imperative to destroy that instrument – thereby striking an indirect blow against the West itself. 5/9

Ukraine is therefore not the primary target of Russia’s geopolitical revisionism – the West is. The destruction of Ukraine is merely a means of striking at the West without confronting it directly. 7/9

Those in the West who believe peace can be secured by surrendering Ukraine to Russia fundamentally misunderstand the hierarchy in Putin’s thinking: the destruction of Ukraine is a tactical objective, not the strategic aim of his war. 8/9

Those who do grasp this hierarchy understand that Western support for Ukraine need not necessarily be rooted in sympathy for the Ukrainian national project – it is, first and foremost, a matter of Western strategic self-interest. 9/9

The goals are different but it would be as effective as the Munich Pact when Chamberlain gave Hitler Czechoslovakia. It would show weakness and whet Putin's appetite.

Putin urgently needs Ukrainian food, raw materials and slaves for factories and army. Exactly like Hitler planned

As soon as the attack started, it occurred to me this is not over Ukraine, this is over the freedom of Western Europe.

If this is the case, it makes sense for Europe to step up and be an enemy to Russia it cannot handle. It can start by making the cost of winning in Ukraine prohibitive, even if Russia is willing to pay it.