The political climate got a few degrees warmer this week after Vladimir Putin announced a plan for partial mobilisation of Russian reserves, calling on a reservoir of somewhere between 300,000 and a million troops to bolster the Russian military’s parlous position in Ukraine.
He also authorised referendums in four occupied regions. If they are declared to show support for becoming part of the Russian Federation (which is generally thought to be a foregone conclusion), it means that Ukraine’s counteroffensives in these areas will represent an attack on sovereign Russian soil.
