The Fire: The Offensive Meant to Decide the War
- EU and strategic partners,
- EU strategy and foreign policy,
- Europe in the World,
- European defence / NATO,
The Fire, the Ice, and the Fog: A Sublimation of the Russian Threat
Now in its fourth year, Russia’s war on Ukraine has become more than a battlefield confrontation. It is fire, ice, and fog at once: the hot war in Ukraine fought with mass, drones, and attrition; the cold confrontation with NATO, centered on escalation management; and the fog of Russia’s internal struggle, marked by fatigue, militarization, repression, and a growing social isolation, as much of the population seeks to distance itself from the war both mentally and in daily life.
Considered alone, each dimension distorts the picture. Taken together, they reveal a Russia both fragile and resilient, archaic and adaptive.
This is Part I: The Fire, focusing on Russia’s war against Ukraine. Two further Policy Briefs will follow, each covering the other fronts of Russia’s struggle.
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(Photo credit: Klyuchevskoy volcano eruption June 2020, Wikimedia Commons)