The message from the Ukrainian commander: "This is our appeal to the world. This could be the last appeal of our lives." Major Serhiy Volyna was speaking from the Azovstal Iron and Steel WorksAn enormous complex that became the Ukrainian army's final stronghold in Mariupol in Mariupol.

Mariupol is not the only Ukrainian city to be devastated. In Izyum, which was captured by the Russians on 1 April, nearly 80% of the housing has been destroyed.

In another city, Mykolaiv, the Russian bombing targeted electricity and water supplies.

"Putin has upped the tempo," says one expert, Mark Almond. "Deeply humiliated by the failure of his intended BlitzkriegGerman word meaning an intense military campaign intended to bring about a swift victory. on the country in February, he is now doubling down to achieve victory by brute force."

Some leaders hesitate to inflict suffering on innocent people. But according to Peter Hughes, writing in The Spectator, Putin believes he is on a mission from God.

His model, Hughes argues, is not Stalin but Ivan Ilyin, a Christian fascist who died in 1954. In 2005 Putin arranged for a reburial at the Donskoi Monastery in Moscow to honour him.

Ilyin called for a strong, totalitarian leader - a "TsarTitle given to an emperor of Russia before the revolution of 1917. The word was originally used for the Bulgarian monarchs in the 10th Century, but can also be used to refer to anyone with absolute power." who would lead Russia in "the great historical battle between the servants of God and the forces of hell."

Putin praised Ilyin when addressing the Russian Federation's assembly in 2006. In 2014, one of his followers said seizing Crimea was necessary for the "rebirth and resurrection" of Russia.

Putin has been encouraged in these views by Alexander Dugin, a former university lecturer who has been compared to RasputinA Russian mystic who gained considerable influence over the last Tsar, Nicholas II, and his family, . Dugin believes that the West is intent on dragging Russia into "the abyssA pit that has no bottom. of chaos and corruption".

It is not enough for Russia to extend its territory into former Soviet states: Putin - according to the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev - wants to "build an open EurasiaThe word is a fusion of "Europe" and "Asia". In George Orwell's novel 1984, there are three superstates that are perpetually at war - Eurasia, Oceania and Eastasia. from Vladivostok to LisbonThe capital of Portugal, on the western coast of Europe.".

He means a Russian empire independent from the West and the East. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Dugin wrote that "the final struggle will burst upon us very soon... the great war of the continents is approaching."

But Doug Saunders of The Globe and Mail doubts that Putin himself believes all of this: "He is clearly using this movement, and language, as a tactic with which to cement his power, as a gaudy ornament to his self-aggrandisement."

Yes: Putin has swallowed Dugin's arguments hook, line and sinker. He believes himself to be the Tsar called for Ivan Ilyin and sees conquering Ukraine as the first step toward creating a new empire.

No: Putin may pretend to be idealistic, but in reality it is a cynical front to mask his own power-hungry ambitions. Nobody who is really Christian could behave in the way that he has done.

Or... According to the Russian poet Maria Stepanova, Putin imagines himself not as a messiah but as an author who is rewriting European history. the only thing he cares about is being in control of events.