Four years and counting in Ukraine

The war’s stalemate was inevitable because drones as the dominant new technology make it very dangerous for soldiers to move on the surface at all.

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Wars of attrition generally end when one side cannot continue because its soldiers mutiny or because its citizens at home refuse to support it any longer. We’re not there yet, writes Gwynne Dyer.The Hill Times photograph by Sam Garcia and courtesy of Flickr/Gage Skidmore/World Economic Forum

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

February 23, 2026

LONDON, U.K.—“Breathe deeply, calm down, and don’t go running to stock up on food and matches,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Ukrainians one month before the Russian tanks rolled across the border on Feb. 24, 2022. The American and British intelligence services ...

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