A year ago Vladimir Putin had hoped blitzkrieg-like strikes, emulating Germany’s seizure of Poland to open the second World War, would see Kyiv fall within days. He had counted on the collapse of what his intelligence told him was a weak, easily demoralised Ukrainian army and a people ready to be liberated from a “neo-Nazi”regime. A year on, forecasts on all sides are, instead, of a prolonged war. Russia’s troops are bogged down in what is now a first World War repeat, trench warfare in the vast muddy plains of eastern Ukraine. His latest offensive advances inch by inch, sacrificing...