UKRAINE
The Russian war on Ukraine has now lasted just over 3 ½ years, and the horror continues. Estimates of the Ukrainian dead are around 43,000 military and 14,000 civilians. Estimates of Russian military deaths are around 111,000. There have been hundreds of thousands of wounded on both sides, and damage to infrastructure is incalculable. Russian forces are steadily but slowly advancing: the Ukrainian resistance remains strong.
Russia will not agree to peace unless Ukraine cedes two provinces of eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk, and Ukrainian neutrality is agreed to (i.e. no NATO membership). So the savagery will continue. Russia considers central and eastern Ukraine as a breakaway part of the homeland. Western Ukraine, with its historic links to Poland and Austria-Hungary, is another matter. Russia blundered in thinking that Ukrainians wanted some form of union with Russia. The attempt to crush Ukraine by arms has been a disaster for both sides.
Sources: The New York Times, 8/25/25; UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 7/2025; BBC, 8/2025