But this invasion hasn't flowed according to the textbook. It's difficult to understand exactly why this failure has come about. If we did, it might help us understand far more clearly how this war might end.

The first possibility is command failure somewhere within the Russian forces bearing down on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and city of Kharkiv from the north. The push along the Black Sea coast has been fast, however, the resupply problems apparently crippling the advance on Kyiv appear to be more than the result of pinprick flank attacks from "stay-behind" Ukrainian forces.

Is this just the lethargic incompetence that naturally erupts from such a huge mass of troops moving, along narrow routes? Or has something far more fundamental gone wrong with this assault? Are they genuinely incapable of a sustained ground offensive without a major logistical halt, or is it command failure, or some other reason?

Russia has also, perplexingly, failed to make use of its massive air superiority. Although NATO has repeatedly insisted its determination not to become involved in combat, the possibility remains of significant cyber activities. This, coupled with the economic effects of sanctions (causing the value of the rouble to plummet) are likely to be causing particularly significant problems for Putin and his lackeys.

Russia has also failed, spectacularly, to win over the Ukrainian people or even attempt to successfully cast President Volodymyr Zelensky as the man standing in the way of peace.

It now appears the only way the Russians will control Kyiv (a city of nearly 3 million people and the seventh most populous in Europe) is by fighting for it, block by block, like Stalingrad in World War II. This sort of battle is deadly and vicious, swallowing troops and lives in each apartment block. Putin's problem is his earlier attempts at surgical strikes, using airborne forces and murdering, mercenary Chechen assassins, appear to have failed disastrously, quickly rounded up or killed by Ukrainian defenders. It's now obvious the only way Russia will be able to win this war is by physically occupying all the country and eliminating Zelensky. The Kremlin urgently needs to wrap up this war for both internal, and international, reasons. What makes this failure to control a narrative so bizarre is that the former Soviet Union first emphasised the use of dezinformatsiya, or information warfare, as a means of overcoming resistance. It now seems Russia has forgotten battles are won and lost by control of people's minds - their will to resist.

This failure leads back to Putin, the one-time KGB spy who today sits alone, uninterrupted, always at the top of the long table while his flunkies cluster grovelling at the bottom. Such sycophants are always utterly in love with their leader: as long as he's in power and distributing baubles. Putin, however, is now self-evidently becoming unhinged, as can be seen from his bizarro appearances on television. His mind is lost and wandering in a world entirely of his own creation and bearing no reality to the place the rest of us inhabit. It's no secret the man's lost it, but nobody dares to be the first to strike him down.

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The economic sanctions the West has imposed have, however, been effectively targeted. Inflation and being cut-off from the modern world will stoke discontent and agitate exactly this group, the people who have benefited in the past from staying silent as their master continually overreached himself. Those around Putin have the capacity to topple the dictator who has single-highhandedly started this war. The question is, if they will.

In the meantime, down the line, orders are given and the offensive ploughs on.

Every war is very different, the only mistake is to think there might be any logic to the destruction or lack of randomness to the killings. Here a competent, careful and well-trained soldier is killed by a random bullet; there a child just happens to die when a piece of masonite accidentally flies into her face. Civil society disintegrates as families become individuals and survival becomes the only guiding reality.

The only way those caught up in the midst of the fighting can create any meaning for their lives is by either fleeing, or killing. That's why wars become so ferocious. Hatred of those causing the destruction is stoked until it becomes an all-consuming passion of formerly reasonable people. Every day the violence continues makes negotiation progressively more and more impossible. Vast quantities of human wealth, both economic and the critical cultural skills on which progress is based, are being extinguished daily.

This insight is not academic. The West has made it clear it will not fight for Ukraine. The need to stop the tanks crushing the future is vital. War will not resolve this conflict. Scott Morrison's announcement Australia's government will "buy weaponry" for Ukraine is nothing more than pathetic political play-acting, as the revelation Australia will continue paying Moscow interest on $8 billion worth of bonds demonstrates. The need is to end the conflict, not stoke it. It's like India pusillanimously avoiding condemning Russia's invasion. There are lots of reasons for doing nothing; no excuses.

Putting critical pressure on the oligarchs or Russia's army might be enough to get them to act in their own interests. Elements of the intelligence services or security council have the power to topple the regime.

We will soon discover if Putin has emasculated them so effectively they are only capable of following him over the cliff, like lemmings, dragging civilisation with them.