Nearly 4 years into war with Russia, Ukraine keeps – Latest News
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has rejected peace.
He’s attempting to persuade the world that the Ukrainian strains are nearing collapse to get President Trump to power Ukraine to give up. But Putin is mendacity.
Nearly 4 years into the battle, which started Feb. 24, 2022, Ukrainian strains are holding. Russian advances stay very gradual and expensive. It’s Putin who ought to be pressured to acknowledge the futility of persevering with to spend the blood of Ukrainians and Russians on his futile desires of conquest.
Outnumbered and wounded, Ukraine continues to be managing to carry Russia back and impose heavy casualties on Russian forces regardless of its own challenges.
Nearly 4 years into the battle with Russia, which started Feb. 24, 2022, Ukrainian strains are holding. Russian advances stay very gradual and expensive. AP
New Ukrainian protection chief Mykhailo Fedorov stated this week that 200,000 Ukrainian troopers are lacking in motion and about 2 million have dodged the draft, and Russian strikes on vitality infrastructure have plunged Kyiv into cold.
But Russians will not be marching to victory. Their forces are struggling 20,000 to 25,000 deaths a month, based on NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. That’s a month-to-month casualty fee close to the higher finish of estimates of the Soviet Union’s complete losses misplaced in the whole decade-long Afghanistan war, Rutte famous.
One sq. kilometer of Ukrainian land price Russia 93 casualties on average in 2025, and Russia has incurred related casualties in earlier years.
Russian recruitment is struggling to offset troop losses. Russia recruited 406,000 people in 2025, based on the Kremlin, and Ukrainian estimates counsel that casualties exceeded 410,000 over the previous 12 months. This might power Putin to make onerous and socially unpopular choices if he stays decided to pursue his dream of conquering Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces have downed 21 Russian Shahed drones utilizing new US-provided Tempest cell air protection automobiles. Facebook/Ukraine Air Command Central
A missile shot from a Tempest vehicle. Facebook/Ukraine Air Command Central
After failing to perform its initial three-day goal of toppling Kyiv, Russia has now fought in Ukraine longer than it fought Germany during World War II. The Russians have neither collapsed Ukrainian defenses nor can they drive on Kyiv.
In truth, Russian advances in Ukraine have plateaued since early Spring 2022.
At the utmost extent of advances in Ukraine in March 2022, Russia had seized over 26% of the nation (together with the 7% they’d seized in 2014). Ukraine repelled Russia’s Kyiv offensive by April 2022, lowering the occupied space to only over 20%.
Ukraine’s blitz counteroffensives within the fall of 2022 additional decreased Russian-held territory to just about 18%, and the latter has solely seized an extra 1.5% of Ukraine’s territory within the practically three years since.
Outnumbered and wounded, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Ukraine continues to be managing to carry Russia back and impose heavy casualties on Russian forces regardless of its own challenges. ZUMAPRESS.com
Putin reoriented Russia’s efforts on seizing the remainder of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts in early 2022 after
the withdrawal from Kyiv. That’s proper — the Russians have been attempting to grab the remainder of Donetsk for
practically 4 years. Achieving that purpose was Russia’s foremost battlefield goal for 2025. They failed again.
Russia reportedly prolonged the date to take all of Donbas to April 2026, however this deadline is as fanciful as all earlier Russian deadlines. At the present fee of advance, they’ll doubtless need at the least till mid-2027 to grab the remaining 21% of Donetsk. Russia has not even taken all of Pokrovsk, which it has been attacking for practically two years — regardless of committing over 150,000 troops to the offensive.
Attacks on the southern tip of Ukraine’s closely fortified Fortress Belt in Kostyantynivka — a significantly bigger settlement than Pokrovsk — have solely simply began. And Russia shouldn’t be close to attacking the opposite key fortress belt cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, which it should seize in attempting to grab the remainder of Donbas. The Kremlin’s propaganda however, Russia shouldn’t be about to do this.
Over 4 years of preventing, Russia has gained remarkably little ground, as this graph from the Institute for the Study of War exhibits.
Other Russian offensives throughout Ukraine have fizzled out.
Forces made their quickest advances of 2025 close to Hulyaipole, a small city on the southern frontline, however advances there have slowed since late November 2025. Meanwhile, Ukrainian counterattacks have liberated a lot of Kupyansk on the northeastern entrance, regardless of Putin having declared it “liberated” a number of instances, together with previously few days.
Russia shouldn’t be studying from previous failures and continues to be splitting its efforts throughout a number of geographical areas versus concentrating for a single decisive effort in Donbas. Putin’s dedication to assault all throughout the road, the truth is, tells us that his goals transcend Donbas. As President Trump has noticed, “he wants to take all of it,” that means all of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s defenses have efficiently prevented vital new Russian offensives elsewhere, significantly alongside the northern border and in southern Ukraine. The Ukrainians are waging a battlefield drone strike marketing campaign focusing on Russian logistics and manpower concentrations farther from the frontlines, constraining advances and denying mechanized maneuver.
New Ukrainian protection chief Mykhailo Fedorov stated this week that 200,000 Ukrainian troopers are lacking in motion and about 2 million have dodged the draft. REUTERS
Failing on the battlefield, Putin turns to propaganda.
The Kremlin exaggerates seizures of tiny rural settlements alongside the frontline and the worldwide
border as main victories supposedly resulting in breakthroughs — which they by no means do. Russia makes use of deceptive flag raisings in contested areas, cross-border raids and demonstrative senior army conferences to visually assist these lies.
Putin goals to win the war by convincing the West that additional arms gross sales and help to Ukraine are futile in opposition to Russian grinding advances. If Ukraine is cut off as a outcome of this phantasm, Russian advances would speed up. But as long as Western assist holds, Putin appears to have no great way ahead.
Ukraine is wounding Russia’s oil export financial system, important to Putin’s war efforts. Strikes in opposition to oil refineries ramped up all through 2024 and 2025, inflicting a number of to partially or fully droop operations. Ukrainian strikes have focused more than half of refineries and value Russia 10% of its oil refining capability as of November 2025 — numbers that may proceed to climb.
Vladimir Putin goals to win the war by convincing the West that additional arms gross sales and help to Ukraine are futile in opposition to Russian grinding advances. Getty Images
Western sanctions and home labor shortages have prevented Russia from repairing a lot of the injury. According to Bloomberg, Ukraine struck at the least 24 Russian oil belongings and infrastructure in December 2025 — a new report high.
And Ukraine is now looking the Russian “shadow fleet” concerned in oil and weapons exports, after launching naval drone strikes on oil tankers within the Black Sea for the primary time in late November 2025. In December, Ukraine rendered three tankers inoperable in simply two weeks based on the nation’s security providers. Kyiv additionally focused offshore infrastructure resembling (*4*)Russian oil and gasoline fields within the Caspian Sea and port infrastructure.
The US has lately been seizing oil tankers linked to Russia as half of its stress on Venezuela, which, mixed with Ukrainian strikes, is chipping away at Russia’s efforts to move oil.
Russian features in Ukraine have flatlined, based on analysis by the Institute for the Study of War.
There is theory that Ukraine was concerned in sinking the Rona, an Iranian-flagged freighter that Western officers have stated transported billions of {dollars} of weaponry to Russia in the previous couple of years, in
the Caspian Sea. While Ukraine’s involvement within the sinking stays unconfirmed, they’ve taken duty for placing at the least one vessel transporting Iranian long-range Shahed drones to Russia by means of the Caspian Sea in August 2025.
All the whereas, Ukraine is urgently looking for air defenses for its vital and vitality infrastructure. Ukrainian forces have already downed 21 Russian Shahed drones utilizing new US-provided Tempest cell air protection automobiles. Ukraine has additionally developed an digital warfare system to jam Russian Kinzhal ballistic missiles earlier than they hit their targets and lately launched serial manufacturing of new Shahed interceptors.
Without a doubt, Ukraine faces severe challenges. Its mobilization and manpower issues are actual. Russian strikes have devastated its vitality grid. It faces shortages of every kind of weapons and ammunition.
Last month, Ukraine struck three Russian oil drilling platforms within the Caspian Sea. The General Staff
But Russian victory shouldn’t be imminent and is completely not assured regardless of Putin’s lies.
Putin believes he can manipulate and stall negotiations whereas nonetheless getting what he desires: persevering with his war as he undermines US stress and sanctions in addition to Western army help to Ukraine. He stays satisfied he can outlast Western assist and power Ukraine and the West to capitulate to his cussed war calls for.
Ukraine and the West can solely persuade Putin in any other case by imposing onerous choices and prices on him.
His society and war machine are already underneath pressure. Helping Ukraine succeed on the battlefield and within the skies, collectively with rising financial stress on Russia, can help flip the tide of the war by slowing features and bolstering Ukraine’s army capabilities — all of which may power Putin to rethink his dedication to the bloody fantasy of conquering Ukraine.
