This is the conclusion drawn by analysts from the German newspaper Die Welt, who list the main reasons why the war has become a matter of personal survival for Putin."The discrepancy between the scale of losses and the "realities on the ground" achieved has long been obvious to everyone. The resources that had been accumulated since Soviet times for a war with NATO were spent in just a few years on a senseless and unnecessary war against Ukraine. Stopping the hostilities would only highlight this senselessness."No matter how much Russian media talk about the "strategic defeat of the West through the occupation of Velyka Novosilka," it does not look convincing even to NTV viewers.Russians who wear "To Washington" T-shirts and put "We can do it again" stickers on their cars need something more than a destroyed village in the Donetsk region. And if tomorrow Putin suddenly announces the end of the war, millions will ask: what was it all for?That is precisely why he cannot stop. Because no one has ever explained what the goals of the "special military operation" were, or how tens of thousands of deaths for Vuhledar or Bakhmut brought those goals any closer. The emptiness of Putin’s phrase "all goals will be achieved" is obvious to everyone. And any pause in the fighting will begin to dispel the fog in the minds of ordinary Russians.Many will start to wonder: was the exchange of Washington for Vuhledar really equivalent? Russia was supposed to fight America, but in the end, it turned out their maximum was to wage war against Ukraine and against the Azerbaijani diaspora in Yekaterinburg.Russians returning from the front will finally come to the sensational realization that the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives was absolutely pointless and brought absolutely nothing to them personally or to their country. The only thing it brought was personal satisfaction to Putin.All this only reinforces the main idea: the war has become a self-sufficient goal. Its continuation is the only chance for Putin to preserve his power, his life, and his support. And Putin’s life has already become a separate Russian "sacred value," for which, it seems, Russian convicts are ready to die to the last.SourceAbout the author: Mykola Kniazhytskyi, journalist, Member of the Ukrainian Parliament.The editorial office does not always share the opinions expressed by the authors of blogs or columns.