Russian matryoshka dolls with portraits of Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin are displayed at a Moscow souvenir shop on March 21, 2023. Xi arrived in Russia for a three-day trip for talks with Putin. (Dmitry Serebryakov / AP) For Ukraine, the war against Russia is existential. Defeat means extinction as a sovereign nation, and the destruction of Ukrainian identity. Russia’s troubles, however, are self-inflicted. By invading Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin forced the West to impose a series of harsh sanctions aimed at squeezing the Kremlin economically, and ultimately, forcing a withdrawal from Ukraine. Advertisement...