A Ukrainian attempt to retake Crimea would be bloody and difficult

VLADIMIR PUTIN hoped to take over Ukraine in ten days. Nine months later, he faces serious problems holding on to the slice of territory he did manage to seize. Momentum is on Ukraine’s side following two counter-offensives, around Kharkiv in the north-east, and Kherson in the south, that were conducted with a minimum of loss and a maximum of triumph.

But those two victories now raise the prospect of what would be much more humiliating Russian reverses in Donbas and Crimea, territory seized by Mr Putin in 2014. In an interview published on November 24th Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, reiterated his aim to “return all lands”. This is what Ukrainians tell pollsters they want, but Ukraine’s Western backers are less sure. They fear that an operation to retake Crimea, or Donbas (militarily an easier proposition), might drive Russia to escalate, perhaps even to use nuclear weapons.