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But they note it's crucial for Ukraine to be able to show at least some gains in order to maintain Western support for the war into 2024 — and perhaps beyond. Russia lacks a decisive, breakthrough capability to overrun Ukraine and will do what it can to hold on to what it currently occupies, using the time to strengthen its defences while it hopes for the West to lose the will to continue supporting Ukraine. Industrial-age warfare bends significant parts, or in some cases whole economies, towards the production of war materials as matters of priority. Russia's defence budget has tripled since 2021 and will consume 30% of government spending next year.

Russia's invasion began with dozens of missile strikes on cities all over Ukraine before dawn on 24 February 2022. The Ukrainian General Staff says settlements in the area - including Klishchiivka and Andriivka - are continuing to come under artillery and mortar fire. It notes the building gives Ukraine a "localised defensive advantage" and says Russian forces will probably suffer significant losses if they attempt to assault the facility. Perhaps most significant is the activity around Avdiivka, a strategically important town on the front line in eastern Ukraine.

U.S. and Britain reportedly believe the Ukraine war could last 10-20 years, become a Russian quagmire

Industrial-age warfare is a struggle between societies. What happens on the battlefield becomes ultimately only the symptom of that struggle. This will make the war in Ukraine a longer and more traumatic enterprise than anything Europe has known since the middle of the last century.

• This brilliant plan was supposedly designed to win the war quickly.









• Perhaps most significant is the activity around Avdiivka, a strategically important town on the front line in eastern Ukraine.









• And in almost all cases, it’s had the opposite effect.

The Russians are trying to teach the Ukrainians that the war is gonna be very costly by taking out their infrastructure and just punishing of civilians. And on the other hand is the west, which is telling the Russians this war is gonna be too costly because we have sanctions on you and your complete economy will implode. But back to the Ukrainians, there’s many other kind of examples where states have tried to punish the civilians in the hope to break their will. And in almost all cases, it’s had the opposite effect.

24Ex-teacher displays harrowing photos from Ukraine, published at 06:24Ex-teacher displays harrowing photos from Ukraine

So for a war to end, the minimum war aims of at least one side must change. And then the question you’ve got to ask is, what causes those war aims to change? War actually does something that we cannot do in peacetime. It lets you see on the battlefield how strong you really are, how resolved and how strong your opponent is.

• Russia admitted 498 of its troops have been killed and 1,597 wounded but Ukraine continued to put those numbers in the thousands.









• And the Russians are trying to influence that calculation.









• The U.S. Congress approved four separate spending bills for Ukraine in the past year totaling $112 billion.









• So there is no incentive or there’s no even belief or need or just there would be no sanity in the idea of decisively defeating Russia inside Russia.

Russia’s defence ministry also said its Iskander missiles had destroyed weaponry supplied by the west in the Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, north-west of Luhansk. A Ukrainian interior ministry official said Russian forces were trying to approach Kharkiv, which experienced intense shelling earlier in the war, and turn it into a “frontline city”. Mr Putin wonders if he has bitten off more than he can chew. He judges that continuing the war may be a greater threat to his leadership than the humiliation of ending it. China intervenes, putting pressure on Moscow to compromise, warning that it will not buy Russian oil and gas unless it de-escalates. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian authorities see the continuing destruction of their country and conclude that political compromise might be better than such devastating loss of life.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there was “no use in setting an end date” to what Russia calls “special military operation in Ukraine”, adding that its objective to “liberate” Donbas had not changed. Thousands of troops have died, billions of dollars in military hardware wasted and entire cities subjected to relentless bombardment – and more than four months on, Russia’s fierce military campaign in Ukraine continues unabated. Russian forces continued to surround and attack Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, and the second-biggest city of Kharkiv. Tanks were spotted moving towards the capital, whilst Russian troops seized the city of Melitopol in Ukraine’s south-eastern Zaporizhzhya region. Ukrainian armed forces started to show fierce resistance, thwarting a number of attacks and Russian aircrafts. Hein Goemans Well, Russia’s best hope is breaking up the western support for Ukraine, and that can happen in a variety of ways, right?

• “Russia probably believes that it has the advantage for the time being and is advancing in the Donbas, albeit slowly,” Jamie Shea, a professor of strategy and security at the University of Exeter, told Al Jazeera.









• The prime minister, who visited Ukraine's capital on Friday, said supplies of weapons, equipment, ammunition, and training to Kyiv needed to outpace Moscow's efforts to rearm itself.









• But back to the Ukrainians, there’s many other kind of examples where states have tried to punish the civilians in the hope to break their will.









• Now the U.S. and European militaries are training Ukrainian forces in Europe.









• “I would love to think the kinetic phase could end in 2023, but I suspect we could be looking at another three years with this scale of fighting,” Roberts said.









• Many Russian nationalists, though, perceive Ukraine as a breakaway region of greater Russia.

Hein Goemans I’m relatively optimistic about it, but I mean, if Trump wins in 2024, things will change. I think that Great Britain will stand squarely behind Ukraine and as many people in the west. I just really don’t understand the strategy or the plans of Scholz.

When Ukraine retook Robotyne in August it was hoped that its forces would be able to cut the land corridor to Crimea, making Moscow's supply lines more complicated. However, Mr Orban's political director said this morning that Hungary was open to using the EU budget to allow further aid for Ukraine. Mr Zelenskyy has called for public officials to disclose their incomes to increase transparency and eliminate corruption as Ukraine tries to meet the stringent requirements for its bid to join the European Union. Russia is India's largest arms supplier, but the war in Ukraine has limited Moscow's ability to provide munitions. " https://notes.io/wiEMU and constructive dialogue is expected to improve relations between states," the Ukrainian president's office said on its official channel on the Telegram messaging app alongside a photo of Mr Szijjarto, Mr Kuleba and Mr Yermak. Peter Szijjarto has arrived in Ukraine for talks with senior officials today.

Explosions were set off in cities and military sites, airports, and airbases were seized. On February 24, Russia launched a military invasion on Ukraine. Since then, conflict has been escalating from all directions. A raft of Western sanctions is squeezing the Russian economy, undermining Moscow’s power and influence on an international level but Putin himself seems unflinching. Through a series of video calls on Thursday, Mr Putin also paid tribute to his fallen soldiers as heroes, but described the conflict as going “according to plan”.

On Wednesday the country's defence minister, Oleksiy Resnikov, met some 50 countries in the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels to ask for more arms and ammunition. Ukrainian officials have spoken bluntly in recent days about the need to boost the supply of heavy weapons to the country if Russian forces there are to be defeated. The prime minister, who visited Ukraine's capital on Friday, said supplies of weapons, equipment, ammunition, and training to Kyiv needed to outpace Moscow's efforts to rearm itself. “This story is as big [as], if not bigger, than 9/11 and the fall of the Soviet Union,” Katerji said, comments that have partially echoed those made by Britain’s foreign secretary.

That hasn't let up, if only because it's a powerful emotional and recruitment tool. Twenty million Soviets — Russians, Ukrainians and others — died fighting Hitler's armies. In other words, the war affected nearly every family here. While defense spending in the United States and Europe is trending upward, in large part because of Russia’s attack, industrial capacity to crank out weapons and ammunition has emerged as a bottleneck.

Ukrainian military officials have conceded that hopes and expectations of a great breakthrough in the counteroffensive were not met. They predict intense fighting is likely to continue into the next year but say Kyiv's forces are unlikely to launch any more counteroffensives. Russia, meanwhile, is likely to focus on consolidating the territory it has already seized, particularly in eastern Ukraine. Hein Goemans Well, some people would say yes, because it makes clear that this is a war caused by a commitment problem that no peace deal will stick. But more generally it’s because the underlying dynamic is different from the short war.