On that day in March, in his plane returning from the Sahel from where the French army was disengaging, General Burkhard had only one certainty about the war that had just begun in Ukraine.
"
Russia cannot lose
," he said.
The Chief of Staff develops: even if the Ukrainian forces resist, the fighting and the destruction will be felt on its territory, and not on that of the invader.
Given its geography and its demography, of 140 million inhabitants, Russia, a power endowed with nuclear weapons, will not be able to collapse against Ukraine, which, by definition, would not be able to threaten the vital interests of its adversary.
The conflict is not played out in the same terms for the two belligerents.
A few months later, when a year has almost passed, the Ukrainian forces managed to thwart all predictions.
They have reconquered part of the invaded territory.
Putin's army has revealed unexpected frailties.
But losing the war...
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