Lessons from a year of war

Nine errors from Moscow, and one thing Kyiv got right

It has been a year since Russian tanks, airplanes and paratroopers crossed the border into Ukraine in the largest land invasion in Europe since World War II. Unlike the invasion of Poland in 1939, however, Ukraine did not fall within weeks. Given how power is concentrated in the Russian Federation, the decision to invade — as well as the nature, scale and prosecution of the war that followed — must eventually be the responsibility of the top leadership, and of the president himself. If the decision, and the war, have not gone as planned, there are surely specific errors of