Putin’s decision to partially mobilise reservists is the sign of a desperate man - Bill Carmichael

The reaction from the Russian people was immediate and courageous. Thousands took to the streets in 37 cities across Russia, including Moscow and St Petersburg, to demonstrate against Putin’s imperialistic war.

Social media footage from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk showed one brave man shouting: “I’m not going to die for Putin!” before being dragged off by thuggish police and FSB security officers to heaven knows what fate. In Moscow the crowd chanted “No to war!”

In total an estimated 1,300 anti-war demonstrators have been arrested in recent days. Considering Russia’s appalling record on human rights we can only pray they come out of detention in one piece.

The authorities have threatened anyone publicising the anti-war protests on social media with 15 years in jail.

Given that the Russian people are fed a daily diet of propaganda and disinformation from the state controlled media, based on the preposterous narrative that Russia is fighting “Nazis”, the level of resistance to Putin’s disastrous adventurism is remarkable.

Meanwhile, flights to the few places in the world where Russians can travel to, such as Turkey and Dubai, were immediately booked solid despite prices increasing to around 9,000 euros for a one-way ticket.

Long queues of cars appeared at border posts and internet searches for “how to leave Russia” have rocketed.

Let’s not forget back in February the Kremlin boasted the war would be over in just three days, with a triumphant procession through the capital Kyiv and other cities, and the Ukrainian people embracing Russian soldiers as liberators.

It didn’t work out quite like that. The Russian assault on Kyiv was repelled by the Ukrainian army, which proved to be far more motivated and effective than the poorly led, poorly equipped invaders.

In more recent weeks, backed by money and sophisticated weaponry from the UK and other western nations, the Ukrainians have begun to push the Russians back and have made some spectacular gains in the north-east of the country around the city of Kharkiv.

The Russian response – the mobilisation and the announcement of referenda in Russian occupied regions – has the whiff of panic about it.

Putin knows that a humiliating defeat will be the end of him and his regime, and he needs to be able to claim some kind of victory in order to survive. But a victory, even a token one, looks further away than ever, and the momentum is decidedly with the Ukrainians who are determined to liberate their homeland from the Russian oppressors.

That explains Putin’s sabre-rattling speech this week in which he threatened the West with nuclear war before adding: “I’m not bluffing”.

Normally, whenever someone states, “I’m not bluffing”, it usually means that they are, in fact, bluffing. But with Putin we can’t be too sure.

Desperate men often take desperate measures and this conflict is now entering a new, and very dangerous phase, for the whole of Europe.

But despite this I believe that backing Ukraine to the hilt is the right thing to do. There is clear evidence that the Russians have committed atrocities against civilians, and for them to gain any benefit from their war crimes is unconscionable.

It has been encouraging to hear our new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, in recent days reinforcing Boris Johnson’s enthusiastic backing of Ukrainian resistance against Russian aggression.

Most Russians just want to get on with their lives and many, perhaps a majority, blinded by lies and propaganda, probably back the war.

But I also suspect they are not keen on their young sons being sent to the meat grinder of the front line to be used as cannon fodder to save Putin’s skin.

This anti-war sentiment has been instrumental in Russian history. For example the Russian Revolution in February 1917 was driven largely by humiliating defeats and enormous losses suffered by the Russian army in World War One.

The Provisional Government, under Alexander Kerensky, which replaced Tsar Nicholas II, made the mistake of continuing to back the war, and later that year in October, it was in turn overthrown by the Bolsheviks, who promised peace.

Wouldn’t it be a delicious irony if Putin’s eventual downfall was caused by his inability to learn the lessons of history provided by his great hero, Vladimir Lenin?