Russia
For Charles Hecker, an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and the author of the 2024 book ‘Zero Sum: The Arc of International Business in Russia’, the grinding war of attrition is finally swinging in Volodymyr Zelensky’s favour. ‘The fact that Russia still hasn't won over a country that it outnumbers in almost everything that you can count, is the greatest indicator here,’ he said. ‘Ukraine is learning more recently that they may be able to overcome one of their greatest shortcomings - manpower for the army - and that their recent advances are coming from technology… ‘For middle-class Russians, for working-class Russians, life has become much more difficult…. everybody in Moscow is feeling the pinch economically of the war. Then comes the mobile internet blockage, and it's just another layer on top of everything that's come already."
