How Ukrainian defiance has derailed Putin’s plans

Three days after the invasion there are signs that Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine is not quite going to plan. In the Sumy region, close to the border with Russia, a local resident came across an extraordinary sight. On a country road lined with birch trees, a Russian armoured vehicle had broken down.

He pulled up in his car and stopped. There was then a surreal conversation.

"Looks like you guys broke down," he said to three Russian soldiers, standing by the road. "We ran out of fuel," one replied. "Can I tow you back to Russia," he joked. They laughed and asked him for news. "Do you know where you are going?" he inquired. "No," they answered.

Further along the road other Russian vehicles had conked out. The driver told the hapless soldiers that "everything is on our side" and that Russians were busy surrendering. No one from Putin's invading army seemed to know where they were going, or why they were even in Ukraine, he concluded.

It is too early to describe the Kremlin's operation to seize and subjugate Ukraine as a failure. The war has only just started. Putin may yet prevail. The Russian military enjoys overwhelming superiority over Ukraine's armed forces. It has numerous combat aircraft, a vast navy and 150,000 deployed troops.

And yet by Saturday, it was clear Putin's blitzkrieg operation to remove Ukraine's pro-western government had run into unexpected difficulties. Evidently, there were logistical issues. Re-supplying troops in a vast enemy country was proving a challenge.

So was seizing Kyiv, Ukraine's defiant capital, home in normal times to three million people. The Kremlin's original plan, according to Ukrainian intelligence, was to encircle the city with land forces and, during a night operation, to fly in 5,000 elite paratroopers.