Is There a Desperation to Hold the Line?

The annexations were very much about making some kind of statement, hoping that this way it could slightly at least deter, if not give, at least it's Western backers. And likewise, mobilization is something that obviously Putin had been trying to avoid for so long because precisely it brings the war forcibly into pretty much every family in the Russian Federation. So we may not feel that we have much opportunity to influence Ukrainian policy, but that doesn't mean that Putin doesn't.