Not everything is going Vladimir Putin’s way. Ukraine’s counteroffensive has made gains recently, Russia’s foreign-exchange reserves are dwindling, and the Prigozhin fiasco revealed cracks in the Kremlin’s power structure. Even so, the view from the Kremlin is nowhere as gloomy as Mr. Putin’s opponents wish.
Mr. Putin’s original plans in Ukraine may have failed and left him in a difficult war of attrition, but the Ukrainians have problems of their own. U.S. and Ukrainian military officials are squabbling about who is to blame for the counteroffensive’s slow progress. With American officials warning that they are unlikely to provide Ukraine with equal or greater supplies for a second offensive next year, Mr. Putin may think he has passed “peak Ukraine” in terms of the country’s ability to resist.