5:59 v originále: Julia Ioffe on Russia, Ukraine and Putin's gambit

Exactly a year ago, more than 40 million Ukrainian citizens were getting used to a new reality. Russia attacked Ukraine and began the largest armed conflict in Europe since the end of World War II. Millions of Ukrainians fled to other parts of the country or abroad. In reaction to Moscow's aggression, Europe and the United States imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia. What do we know, one year later, about the motivation of Russian President Vladimir Putin?

„I think the war has been clarifying,“ says Julia Ioffe, long time Russia analyst and founding partner and Washington correspondent of Puck.

„Russia under Vladimir Putin has shown that he is essentially only interested on doing things on his terms. And his terms - especially in the latter years of his rule - are imperial conquest.“

You can listen to a special episode of the podcast 5:59 in the audio player:

Putin's latest public speeches suggest that he is not ready to back down, says Ioffe.

„He has made the stakes so unbelievably high both for himself and for Russia (…) that there is kind of no backing down without dying. He has made it very clear that he will not lose this war. And if he were to lose this war then everybody loses with him.“

On Tuesday president Vladimir Putin delivered a warning to the West over Ukraine by suspending a landmark nuclear arms control treaty New START, that was signed in Prague in 2010 and came into force the following year.

Putin announced that new strategic systems had been put on combat duty and threatened to resume nuclear tests. „He has spoken in no uncertain terms that he will use nuclear weapons if he were to lose,“ warns Ioffe.

„I think that's where the West finds itself in a tough spot where they don't want Russia to win but they also realize that if Ukraine were to win on Ukraine's terms, which is returning itself to its 1991 borders, it might trigger a nuclear confrontation between Russia and the West.“

Where is the conflict headed? What have we learned about Russia and its relationship towards its neighboring countries and also towards the West? And how much will the war shape our understanding of security? Listen to the whole interview via the audio player at the top of the article.