Putin’s boycotting of the anniversary of the Geneva conventions further demonstrates his opinions on international humanitarian law and the laws of war

The huge waves of lethal Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities last week had three main aims. One was to re-terrorise a civilian population grown accustomed to a certain level of attrition, while targeting energy and other key national infrastructure ahead of winter. Vladimir Putin’s crude message: if we cannot defeat you on the battlefield, we will try to scare, freeze and starve you into submission instead.

Russia’s second objective was to exact revenge for Ukraine’s audacious military incursion into its Kursk region, begun early last month. The attack caught Russian forces by surprise, and they have so far failed to repel it. Kyiv’s military commander, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, says Ukraine now controls 500 square miles of Russian territory. He said Ukraine has no intention of staying but is trying to draw Russian forces away from their offensive in eastern Ukraine. This tactic may be working. An estimated 30,000 Russian troops have been diverted. Even so, western analysts estimate Russia needs about 60,000 soldiers to expel Ukrainian forces.