Russia suffers a series of military, economic and diplomatic defeats

Russia is losing manpower at an unsustainable rate, is forced to accept Finland’s and Sweden’s decisions to join NATO, and is cutting its own gas sales to Europe, undermining revenues

Military, economic and diplomatic own-goals marked the twelfth week of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Its retreat from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, has now pushed Russian forces back to their own border 40km away, and taken their artillery beyond the city’s range.

Russia seems to be contracting its plans for a grand pincer movement around Ukrainian …