By the end of May, however, and after NATO — mostly the United States — began sending modern weapons to the outgunned but stubborn Ukrainian military, Putin realized that his forces were in for a slog. Not much ground had been taken, comparatively speaking, few of the operation's initial objectives had been met, and his army was a long way from the capital of Kyiv. What's more, the army he sent into Ukraine was bleeding badly, losing far more personnel than anyone in his high command had estimated.

Toward the end of the fall, Putin ordered an additional 300,000 personnel to be mobilized, most of whom were bound for the fighting in Ukraine. But after losing more than 115,000 soldiers killed and perhaps double that wounded, according to reporting, the Russian president is going all-in with a general mobilization that will see the size of the Russian army swell to around 1.5 million. "The target strength was proposed by the Defense Ministry in December," Russia Today reported this week.

Meanwhile, Russian officials have accused the U.S. and NATO of fighting a proxy war against Moscow by funneling weapons and ammunition into Ukraine by the tens of billions of dollars.