Analysis: Putin has backed himself into a corner - and had no choice but to escalate
Our
security and defence editor Deborah Haynes says Vladimir Putin had no choice but to escalate the war in Ukraine after backing himself into a corner.
Here's the latest Haynes had on the situation...
"The problem that Putin has is that he's backed himself into a corner. He can't back down because that would effectively mean the end of his presidency if he failed in Ukraine, given all of the fake news that he has used to support his argument for invading in the first place.
"And yet his military is failing. It failed to take Kyiv, it failed to seize swathes of territory in the east and the south and to hold them.
"That's now being massively challenged by Ukraine and so what options does he have left other than to escalate - and that's what we're seeing.
"We're seeing in terms of the annexation of those four regions that he did last month, with the drafting of hundreds of thousands of Russians into the military - and now with this huge barrage of missile strikes."
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