Vladimir Putin is a fascist.

He’s a war criminal. He’s a thug. He’s a murderer.

But he’s also losing his war against Ukraine. He’s already lost, in fact.

Ten reasons:

1. NATO. More than anything else, perhaps, the Russian dictator wanted to stop Ukraine’s admission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO was weakened during the chaotic Donald Trump era — and Putin wanted to keep it that way. Instead, his attack on Ukraine has unified NATO like never before.

2. CHINA. Putin’s closest superpower ally has been China. He didn’t start his illicit war until the Beijing Olympics were over — and he was counting on China’s tacit support while he waged war. But China has clearly been stunned by world reaction, and has been decidedly unhelpful to Putin at the United Nations and elsewhere. Putin needed China’s unquestioning support. He doesn’t have it.

3. EU. Until now, the European Union has been European, perhaps, but not so united. Since the commencement of war in Ukraine, however, the EU has acted swiftly, decisively and as a common front — and, for the first time, provided arms to a nation under attack. Like NATO, the EU is united and stronger like never before — because Putin underestimated both.

4. SWISS. The Swiss are known for cheese and banking — with holes in the former, but none in the latter. For the first time in history, however, the notoriously secretive Swiss banking system has abandoned neutrality and frozen millions held in personal accounts belonging to Putin and his cabal. That was a move neither Putin nor his regime ever expected.

5. RUSSIANS. Thousands of Russians have taken to the streets, across Putin’s fiefdom, to loudly and defiantly oppose his war. They have done so at great risk to themselves and to their families — and hundreds have been imprisoned for doing so. Meanwhile, even some of the most ardent Putin loyalists — the oligarchs he made rich, and vice-versa — have started to openly oppose the war, too.

6. SWIFT. The expulsion of Russian banks from SWIFT, the nervous system that joins financial institutions around the globe, has crippled the Russian economy, and rendered the ruble virtually worthless. Without SWIFT, Russia cannot conduct trade with the rest of the world.

7. TRUMP. Putin could always count on Donald Trump, and the Trump Republicans, to offer unqualified support. Trump, in fact, even paid tribute to Putin’s “genius” in a recent speech — and was stunned by the massive backlash it caused. Since then, Trump and his Republicans have been walking back their fealty to the Russian leader, and condemning his war in Ukraine.

8. CANADA ET AL. Little Canada and other nations who lack superpower clout have been punching above their weight during this illegal war. Canada, in particular, has sent Ukraine fighting troops for training, shipped lethal weapons, initiated the calls for Russia’s expulsion from the global financial system, and this week pushed for the prosecution of Putin as a war criminal. Whatever their many faults, PM Justin Trudeau and his cabinet have done exceptionally well since the war began.

9. WEATHER. Writer John Mraz returned from Ukraine this week. On my Kinsellacast podcast, Mraz said that unseasonably warm temperatures have hurt Putin’s military. Russian heavy artillery has been confined to roadways because the ground is too soft and muddy — thereby making that artillery an easy target for Ukrainian military.

10. UKRAINIANS. More than anything else, Putin was counting on Ukrainians to put up little or no defence — as was the case when he annexed Crimea in 2014. That hasn’t happened. The Ukrainian military, and Ukrainian people, have fought with a ferocity that all of us will be speaking about for generations. Their bravery and strength has been astonishing, and an inspiration for the world. So too their leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

In the end, Putin may take Ukraine, but he will not hold it. He will never hold it.

Because all of the world are now united against him — and united in support of the Ukrainian people.

— Warren Kinsella was special assistant to Prime Minister Jean Chretien

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At the risk of sounding indelicate, I had to ask: Where’s the body?

It’s an awkward question, to be sure. It makes people uncomfortable, when you demand to see human remains. But not a few folks were asking it over the weekend, just the same.

On Friday night, Fox News — and too many others — reported that an elderly female protester had been trampled to death by mounted police in Ottawa. Sara A. Carter, a longtime Fox News personality, tweeted this: “Reports are the woman trampled by a Canadian horse patrol just died at the hospital.”

That’s a word-for-word quote. Fourteen thousand people retweeted it, including Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Fifteen thousand people “liked” it.

Except, well, no. The woman — happily — didn’t die. No one died, in fact. (And Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, properly, is investigating what happened to the woman.)

Carter later had to issue a complete retraction and apology. The acting chief of the Ottawa Police Service was restrained, and called the trampled-to-death report “misinformation.” The rest of us would have another name for it: Bullshit.

Last weekend, combined police forces came together, from Vancouver to the SAQ police in Quebec. They were efficient, professional and restrained. There was, as my Sun colleague Brian Lilley stated many times, no instances of police brutality. Whatsoever.

But that didn’t stop the the fibbers, fabulists and fabricators — on both sides of the ideological divide — from attempting to peddle, um, horse hooey. In Ottawa, along with protesters and trucks, there was quite a lot of horse manure to be seen. (Horses, too.)

Take (please) one of the head honchos at Rebel News, which I personally regard as neither rebels (in the traditional sense) nor news (in any sense). He tweeted this about the woman-trampled-to-death incident: “Trudeau orders mounted police to charge the crowd of unarmed civilians.”

Let’s look at that, shall we? There are big problems with it.

For starters, the two starting words are flat-out false. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whatever else his powers, does not have the power to “order” police to do anything. Also: The protesters were warned the horses were advancing, multiple times. If that’s a “charge,” it’s not a very good one.

And “unarmed civilians?” Really? Does that make the victim more victim-ish? Perhaps the “rebel” could have also tweeted that the woman in question — who, again, is quite alive — also goes to church every morning, and donates all of her wages to orphanages. And has a halo.

Anyway. The B.S. wasn’t just coming from the so-called right side of the ideological spectrum. It was coming from the so-called left side, too.

The New York Times, which is usually considered one of the best newspapers in the world (after the one you now happily grip in your hands), had this as an actual headline on page 11 of their Sunday edition: “Police in Ottawa Arrest Truckers at Gunpoint as They Clear Downtown.”

The Times got it wildly, dramatically wrong. None of the 191 people arrested in Ottawa — not a single solitary one of them — was arrested at gunpoint. Zero, zippo, zilch.

The lede was even worse: “Canadian police officers advanced on demonstrators at gunpoint.”

Well, no. The police had guns, yes. Police usually do. But those guns were holstered. And whatever you think about the assembled anti-vaxxer folks in Ottawa — and this writer doesn’t think much of them — none of them needed to be arrested “at gunpoint.” Most went quietly.

Many inquiries and commissions are soon to take place, examining how the Ottawa occupation happened, and how to avoid it from happening again. They will go on for months and years.

There needs to be a review into some of the media coverage, too. Because some of the media — on the left and the right — got it wrong.

Very, very wrong.

— Warren Kinsella has taught media law and legal journalism at the University of Calgary and Carleton University.

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