There is a school of thought in intelligence that the current generation of russian leadership have a “win or die trying” outlook, because they are a generation removed from the leaders that conquered germany and had nothing to prove. There are rumors that putin considered it acceptable to nuke warsaw to win the crimean conflict, which matches his belief no one will stop him in ukraine, and he only needs to wait for trump to save him. It’s worth a pause… but I’m glad to see europe pushing back now, and putin should be afraid his choice will become “everyone dies, or just I die.” Because the people around him don’t want to be part of the everyone.