India, Sept. 6 -- In his later years, Hitler developed an almost mystical attachment to 'no retreat' orders. At Stalingrad, he forbade the 6th Army from breaking out. The result was the destruction of Germany's most elite formation. Putin has followed the same playbook.

When the 40-mile Russian convoy ground to a halt outside Kyiv in February 2022, military historians collectively raised their eyebrows. Here was the world's second-most powerful army, stalled not by enemy fire but by fuel shortages, poor planning and the infamous Ukrainian mud. It was, to borrow a phrase, Stalingrad without the snow, yet with the same tragi-comic incompetence.

The instinct to compare Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler is as understandable as it is imprecise....