Putin has to escalate to survive. There can be no peace until he falls

Germany's Olaf Scholz wants a return to the prewar order. While Russia peddles fantasies of a global empire, that dream is unachievable

Vladimir Putin should expect more Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russian territory, such as those on two military airbases last week. US attempts to dissuade Kyiv's leaders from taking the war to Russia in retaliation for Putin's merciless missile and drone attacks on their people and cities were bound to fail eventually.

It was asking too much. The strikes by newly developed, homemade, long-range drones, one of them only 150 miles from Moscow, are of a different order from previous attacks in Crimea and other Russian-occupied areas. They take the war to a more expansive, dangerous level - and represent the escalation that Nato allies fear most.