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The Russian full-scale war in Ukraine, perhaps incredibly, is edging towards its fourth year.

Despite the endless oscillations from the Trump White House toward Putin,

against Zelensky, away from Putin, back to Zelensky again, the fundamentals have remained

remarkably constant. Putin wants to cripple Ukraine and he's been willing to bet that he wants

that more than the West wants to stop it. Trump has this week finally made good

on his long-standing threat to impose fresh sanctions on Russia, the first of his administration.

It's a moment, but it could also be the latest in a string of false dawns.

One man who has seen more of this war, at least the politics of this war,

more than almost any other, is Jens Stoltenberg, until recently the Secretary General of NATO.

He was the man in the hot seat when the unthinkable came true, a full-scale land war on European soil. He was the man who had to contemplate

whether World War III was about to unfold, or at the very least whether the war in Ukraine was its

starting gun. Stoltenberg is also a stalwart of international politics, former Prime Minister of Norway,

one of that country's most

successful post-war politicians for 10 years the leader of NATO in its most troubled period

since the end of the Cold War, and again recently returning to his home country as finance

minister and widely credited with helping turn around the troubled Norwegian Labour Party's fortunes into a shock

election victory against populist conservatives in September's elections. He's just published a book

On My Watch, leading NATO in a time of war, and he stepped in to the newsagent studio to reflect

on a decade of turmoil, of shifting great power politics, of the rise of the

radical right, and to answer that central question. Is the war in Ukraine the final chapter of

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