HOW TO REPAIR UKRAINE USING RUSSIA'S MONEY

Allies explore reparation loans as Kyiv faces soaring reconstruction costs and deficits.

- JOHN DOBSON LONDON

During a speech earlier this month, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was reported to have said in his characteristically colourful way: "if a common or garden snail had set out across Russia's border with Ukraine at the same time as Putin dispatched his 115 battalion tactical groups in February 2022, the snail would now be in Poland".

Russian troops have advanced at different rates along the 600-mile line of battle in Ukraine, from a few miles in places to as much as 80 miles in others, but whatever you choose, the snail has clearly won the race.

When Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, most observers predicted it would be only a matter of days before Ukraine was conquered by the mighty Russian army and Putin would have realised his dream of forcing his Slavic neighbour back into the Russian empire.

Putin certainly thought so. His soldiers were ordered to pack their ceremonial uniforms in preparation for a march through Kyiv and told they would be showered with flowers by a grateful nation for having delivered them from their Nazi leaders. Even the Ukrainian oligarch and close friend of Vladimir Putin, Victor Medvedchuk (Putin is his daughter's godfather), was lined up to replace President Zelenskyy, so certain was Putin of winning. More than three and a half years later, an embarrassed Russia has only conquered about 19 percent of Ukraine, including Crimea which it seized back in 2014. These modest gains have come at immense cost of more than 1 million Russians dead and wounded. According to one US assessment, Russia is suffering at least 5 casualties for every Ukrainian, and in some battles, the ratio is said to be as high as 12 to 1.