“Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the mouth,” world champion heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson said when he was asked how he planned to defeat Evander Holyfield’s fight plan. Tyson was infamously disqualified for biting off part of Holyfield’s ear in one of the two championship bouts they fought.

Vladimir Putin had a plan. Had a plan until he got punched in the face. Putin’s plan was to do a “smash and grab”. Smash into Ukraine with his armor columns and grab the capital Kyiv from the north, deposing the democratic government and install a puppet regime while seizing the southern portion of Ukraine with its Black Sea ports...