‘Russia is failing’ in Ukraine and has already ‘strategically lost’ the war, says the head of Britain’s armed forces

Jonathan Eyal, associate director of strategic research partnerships at defense think tank the Royal United Services Institute, told Fortune on Friday that ultimately, Putin’s strategic objective in Ukraine was to re-create the old Soviet Empire by reimposing control over Ukraine. “Russia has lost strategically if we assume, as looks likely, that the objective of Putin was to take over Ukraine and transform it into a satellite state under Russian influence,” he said. “So in that respect, Russia has failed strategically. It is now blatantly obvious that Ukraine may not regain full control of all its territory, but it will remain an independent state, and more importantly it will remain a state that will challenge Russian influence in the region.”