India, Oct. 18 -- Money is an expensive way to run an army, for a start. Every rouble spent on bounties is a rouble not spent on tanks, drones or the schools and hospitals that Russians were promised.

When Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine 1,697 days ago, the last thing he expected to have was a manpower problem. After all, back in February 2022, he was certain that he would succeed within a few weeks, after which Ukraine would, in his view, rightly be returned to the Russian fold. His forces were assured that Zelensky's rag-tag army would quickly surrender and that Russia's victorious troops would be showered with flowers by a grateful nation as they marched triumphantly through the streets of Kyiv. As the world now knows, ...