he looks ahead to the next us presidential election and perhaps calculates that if the republicans get in, perhaps that will mean less support for ukraine. the other thing is he's in this so deep now that it's hard to see a way out, a way back for him. so perhaps his new calculation is, well, i've gone so far with this that i can't retreat now. i'm going to push for some kind of victory. is it a sort of life or death thing for putin? if he does fail to win, if he loses this war, will he be shunted off to jail by somebody? you know, vladimir putin has always had this image amongst the russian elite as a winner. this reputation has sort of disintegrated. and that's a potential danger for him because a defeat in this war would heap enormous pressure on him. the british ministry of defence said