Six months ago, when the power-hungry Russian despot Vladimir Putin launched his brutal and unjustifiable invasion of his next-door neighbor, he probably expected that by today, Ukraine’s independence day, Russia’s flag would have been flying over Kyiv for some time.
He decidedly was not expecting to be blasting desperate recruitment pleas over Russian towns, looking for more cannon fodder to replace the tens of thousands of soldiers the madman has deployed to their deaths against a resilient and internationally supported Ukrainian resistance.
In almost every way, the Russian effort has failed spectacularly. Ukraine, obviously, has not fallen, and it stands a real chance of warding off the Russian advance and causing enough damage to force a retreat. The Russians have lost an eye-popping chunk of their military command and a significant portion of crucial military hardware, degrading their capacity to continue the fight, or indeed to engage in any offensive in the near term.
NATO has not been put on the ropes, as intended, but rather strengthened, with the highly capable militaries of Finland and Sweden on track to join the Atlantic alliance. The Russian economy is staggering from widespread economic sanctions, and the country is experiencing a pronounced brain drain as Russians opposed to the war leave, not to mention the many young people killed.
Though the invasion has been a failure, Russia persists, with the costs on the region and the world mounting. Thousands of civilians have been killed, and millions more displaced internally or internationally as refugees. The question now is what happens next. The assassination of Russian ultranationalist Darya Dugina threatens to push Putin to double down; the Russian ambassador to the United Nations this week said that no diplomatic solution is possible.
Russia cannot be allowed to prevail in a brutal, unprovoked campaign against its sovereign neighbor. But endless war serves no one. A brokered end to the hostilities, with Ukraine’s sovereignty preserved and its head held high, is the only humane answer.
