Vladimir Putin has been fighting not just Ukraine, but his own people

TWO YEARS after he launched his invasion of Ukraine on February 24th 2022, things are going Vladimir Putin’s way. Ukraine’s summer counter-offensive failed, and Russian troops are slowly creeping forward. On February 17th they took , a small town, now a smoking ruin, next to the Russian-held city of Donetsk. It is the first Russian achievement since May. But though it is of limited significance considering the cost in blood, it is a sign of Mr Putin’s determination to carry on his war. Russia’s military-industrial complex is now churning out five times as many shells as it did at the start of the war. Western aid to Ukraine is ebbing.Russia’s president is also advancing on the home front. On February 16th he finally got rid of , a brave opposition leader who died in jail in the Arctic where Mr Putin had placed him. Mr Navalny’s mother was told that the reason for his death was “a syndrome of sudden death”; many other enemies of Mr Putin have succumbed to similar medically opaque causes. The two fronts are connected; Mr Putin’s war in Ukraine has always been about securing his position at home by changing conditions abroad.