After a month of bombardments and maneuvers, it can be concluded that the invasion initially planned by the Kremlin - which consisted of lightning operations to quickly seize Ukrainian enclaves - has failed.

But this failure does not approach the end of the war.

It is not to be expected that a dictator as militaristic as Putin will give in, but, on the contrary, that he will

intensify the conflict both outside and within his borders

.

The war in Ukraine threatens to become entrenched turning the country into a hornet's nest

similar to Syria but in the heart of Europe.

And meanwhile, in Russia, the control of the war narrative is tightened through censorship and repression, burying the loopholes that remain of such a fragile democracy and completely destroying its starved system of freedoms.

Until recently, there was hope for a possible agreement to end the war.

But the negotiations, also clouded by an alleged poisoning of members of the delegations, have cooled down.

In fact, the bombing of Bolgorod against eight fuel depots near the ground deployment of the Russian army does not exactly help to improve the conditions of the talks, and this is what the Kremlin spokesman has declared.

Regardless of this, the truth is that Moscow is not willing to give in on the territorial issue, it does not renounce the Donbas republics, and the military setbacks, whose paradigm is the battle of kyiv, where Zelensky's men have expelled the Russian troops, make Putin even more dangerous.

Given the partial defeats that he is suffering on different fronts,

intensifying the attacks

after a brief strategic withdrawal.

Away from the field of war,

the situation in Russia is increasingly alarming for the political and social dissident

.

Putin has been pulling the strings of the country for 22 years without real opposition or counterweights, and he now exercises all that accumulated autocratic power with an iron fist.

There are already more than 15,000 people arrested in demonstrations for peace, actions are being taken against activists, presenters, priests, teachers, influencers.

He is fined, detained and marked - with signs and pigs' heads on pikes - at anyone who makes public allegations against the war.

And private: the police stop citizens on the street, forcing them to show what they have written on their mobiles.

The risk of Russia reverting to an openly dictatorial system has never been more real in decades.

To continue reading for free

Sign inSign up

Or

subscribe to Premium

and you will have access to all the web content of El Mundo