Frustrated by his inability to conquer the people of Ukraine thus far, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin reportedly resorted today to carpet bombing and cluster munitions in Kharkiv in the east of the country. Russian forces have been attacking Kharkiv since he gave the order for the invasion, but have been repeatedly repulsed.

Carpet bombing of cities, towns, villages, or other areas containing a concentration of civilians is considered a war crime as of Article 51 of the 1977 Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions. Cluster munitions were banned by the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008. After ratification by 130 countries, including Russia, the Convention became International law in 2010.

A shopping center in Kharkiv and a school in Okhtyrka were destroyed indiscriminately, leaving dozens killed and hundreds wounded at the shopping center and three dead at the school.

According to reporters for the Daily Mail, the bombs were fired using the Bm-21 Grad Rocket system, which is a multiple launch weapon. If carpet bombing and/or cluster munitions were used on Ukraine’s civilian population Vladimir Putin has committed a war crime, and, according to ABC News, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at the Hague says he plans to open an investigation “as rapidly as possible” into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.

Nearly the entire world is united in opposition to Putin’s monstrous invasion. It seems the Russian Federation President has done the one thing all observers thought impossible: He has united Europe, North America and Australia as never before. The economic sanctions leveled over the weekend, which I feared would be no more than a slap on the wrist, have turned out to be a kick in the gut and a punch to the side of the head. The Russian stock market was ordered to remain closed today, the value of the Rubel dropped by more than 30%, and there were long lines at ATMs.

Putin’s only ally appears to be Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus, which sits on Ukraine’s northern border. In the invasion, a third of Russia’s forces attacked from Belarus, and today Belarussian forces joined the Russians in bombing and attacking Kharkiv. Lapdog Luka continues in power because of his fawning willingness to serve his lord and master, Vlad the Invader. One hopes he will also pay a heavy price for the devastation he is helping to wreak on the innocent citizens of innocent Ukraine.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., Republicans (most of whom were their own kind of lapdog to Putin’s good friend and admirer, Donald Trump) have been keen to say how awful the whole situation is, and, by the way, it never would have happened on their watch, and isn’t it terrible that Joe Biden is rolling over for European leaders. Some have excoriated him, because he is letting Europe have too much of the credit for the world’s response. He’s not America First enough. These Republicans, of course, are the same people who voted to deny Ukraine the weapons so necessary for its defense. Those would be the Javelins that are now destroying so many Russian tanks and armored vehicles. Like the ever-expanding universe, there seems to be no limit to opportunistic hypocrisy.

And what can we say about Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky, Ukraine’s President? This is a man who was trivialized and mocked by many after his election in 2019. This is a man who had to suffer the indignity of being on the other end of the line for Donald Trump’s “perfect call.” This is a man who, more than anyone else, has shamed Europe into uniting to combat Putin’s horrific, criminal, and inhumane invasion. A man, no, a leader, who leads by example in the face of near certain death if he is captured.

A man who has now become the George Washington of his country.

I look at the world and I notice it’s turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps.
-George Harrison

If the great George Harrison were alive today, his guitar would be weeping over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin’s troops have blitzed their way to the major cities and, as of this morning, have encircled and shelled Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. Resistance has been strong. Reports suggest the invasion isn’t going as smoothly as Putin imagined it would. Ukrainian troops are fighting valiantly, as did so many in Hitler’s way in 1939, but, as with those long ago heroic defenders, they fight alone and their cause is hopeless. True, they will make Putin pay a high cost in Russian blood, but it seems inevitable that Kyiv will fall. Putin will decapitate the government, assassinate the leaders he can find, install a puppet regime, declare Ukraine restored to its rightful place in the arms of Mother Russia, and that will be that.

Russian heavy troop presence will remain, and a “leader” like lapdog Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will sit at the head of government. Maybe Putin’s friend Viktor Yanukovych, thrown out in 2014’s Revolution of Dignity will return. It’ll be easy to reach him; he’s been living in Moscow ever since. That will be irony, indeed.

It certainly seems Putin has outfoxed America and the rest of NATO and the European Union.

How can I say that?

First, as I reminded readers yesterday, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright noted in a New York Times Guest Essay that Putin is a planner and plays the strategic long game. Right now, it’s becoming obvious that the current invasion has been in the planning for more than eight years, perhaps going all the way back to the early 21st century when he first took power. Since then, everything he has done has been geared toward a return of Imperial Russia. Remember, as far back as 2005, he called  the breakup of the Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”

Second, in keeping with that, I urge you to read a brilliant column in today’s Washington Post by Sebastian Mallaby, the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and a contributing columnist. Mallaby’s point is that by forcing Russians to sacrifice since prior to 2014’s invasion of Crimea, Putin has built up a tremendous economic reserve, much like the Bible’s Joseph in ancient Egypt preparing for seven years of famine. In contrast, Mallaby describes how the West has sacrificed nothing in response.

Perhaps a couple of excerpts would help:

1. As Matthew C. Klein observes in the Overshoot newsletter, Russia has used the past eight years to reduce its vulnerability to sanctions. The Russian people have accepted a drop in living standards, cutting their consumption of imports by more than a quarter. Russian businesses have paid off overseas creditors, reducing their foreign debt by one-third. The Russian state has tightened its belt, allowing it to build up its reserves of gold and foreign currency.

2. By embracing these sacrifices, Russia has fortified itself against the West’s economic weapons. The central bank has a $630 billion rainy-day fund. Even if sanctions blocked 100 percent of Russian exports for an entire year, the country could continue to import at its current pace and have foreign-exchange reserves left over. President Biden’s initial response to Putin’s incursions was to bar U.S. investors from buying Russian bonds. But Russia has no need to borrow from Americans.

So, as a good friend suggested to me yesterday, is our big song and dance about levelling crippling sanctions in unity with NATO and the European Union nothing more than Kabuki Theatre? Have we dug into the armory of our considerable weapons and unleashed a pack of snarling paper tigers? In the march to the takeover of Ukraine, will Vlad the Invader stare into the eyes of our paper tigers and then simply shrug and move on?

This is all so very sad.

My guitar gently weeps.