Russia and Ukraine have been locked in an intractable-seeming conflict that has thrown not only the two nations into a state of prolonged chaos but huge swaths of Eastern Europe as well. While ostensibly a war over territorial expansion and ethnic sovereignty,

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has said that the so-called "special military operation" ("SVO") - as Russian propaganda refers to the war against Ukraine - should have been launched even earlier. He made this remark when asked whether he would change his mind if he could return to February 2022.

Call it shadow or hybrid, everything points to war and the reluctance to call it that comes from decades of complacency on security.