Ukraine crisis: what previous wars tell us about Putin’s next moves
- A failed ‘thunder run’ to quickly take out the Kyiv government means the Russian leader may return to the ruthless military tactics for which he is known
- Putin’s career was founded on campaigns that inflicted tremendous damage on cities in Chechnya and Syria, reducing some areas to rubble
With his latest invasion seen by Western officials as going more slowly than expected, they see him turning increasingly to the use of artillery and missile strikes that, if continued, will lay waste to residential areas.
Putin’s over-20-year career at the top of Russian politics was founded on his ruthlessness in military affairs.
Back in 1999, he was a surprise nomination for prime minister by then ailing president Boris Yeltsin whose popularity had been sapped by the country’s economic woes, corruption and a bloody separatist war in the region of Chechnya.
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Ukraine invasion: Russian missiles strike Kharkiv; at least 10 killed and 35 injured
One of Putin’s first major acts as premier was to oversee a whole-scale offensive against the rebels in the breakaway Muslim-majority region in the far southeast.
