LONDON - It is an immutable lesson of warfare: however carefully and well-constructed, no war plan survives the first contact with battle.

But as the war in Ukraine hit the 100-day mark, the sheer scale of the failure of Russia's plan is by now undeniable. The only question is whether its military is still capable of snatching a modest victory out of what, by any other yardstick, can only be considered a humiliating strategic defeat.