TWO YEARS ago this newspaper outlined a vision of a “Ukraine 2.0”, led by reformers in government and citizens outside. We acknowledged that it had little hope of recovering its lost territory, at least as long as Vladimir Putin remains in the Kremlin. But if Ukraine could emerge secure, democratic and prosperous even within a shrunken frontier, that would be a form of victory. Today, the country is struggling on all of those counts. Ukraine is clearly surviving, but it is gradually being hollowed out and losing room for manoeuvre.“We can fight for years, losing positions slowly,” says one senior official. “But the question is why?”