Russia's war now runs on narrative and terror, not terrain.
With its central Donetsk campaign judged unwinnable, the Kremlin substitutes mass civilian strikes for maneuver gains while a managed wartime election ratifies maximalist aims — the war's politics fully decoupled from its military results.
The same conclusion keeps arriving from across the workspace's research — 1 topics independently instantiate this theme. Filter the evidence by where it came from:
With the maximalist aim assessed as unachievable, the war's remaining currency is terror against civilians rather than terrain.
A managed wartime election, with the antiwar party barred, ratifies maximalist aims the battlefield cannot deliver.
The year's worst atrocity targets buses and rescuers, not military objectives — terror substituting for failed maneuver.