Feb. 24 marks four years since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine — an assault widely expected at the outset to conclude within days but which has instead evolved into one of Europe’s bloodiest wars since World War II.

Putin’s move to attack a sovereign neighboring state upended long-standing international norms and has resulted in immense human and physical devastation. The war has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, left millions wounded, and reduced large swaths of Ukrainian cities and infrastructure to ruins.

Because both Moscow and Kyiv tightly control the release of battlefield data, establishing precise casualty figures remains impossible.

Still, independent assessments paint a grim picture of the scale of the conflict:

• Combined military casualties — including those killed, injured, or missing — are estimated to reach as many as 1.8 million. Of that total, Russia is believed to have suffered about 1.2 million casualties, including up to 325,000 fatalities, while Ukraine’s losses are estimated at roughly 500,000 to 600,000, with as many as 140,000 dead.

• Ukrainian government data indicates that approximately 55,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed, with many others either wounded or unaccounted for.

• Civilian suffering has also been severe. The U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission reports at least 14,999 civilian deaths and more than 40,600 injuries in Ukraine since 2022, though the actual numbers are widely believed to be higher.

• At least 763 children are among the civilian dead, and 2025 has proven to be the most lethal year yet for non-combatants since the war began.

Altogether, even conservative tallies suggest that the total number of dead and wounded on both sides approaches or surpasses two million — underscoring the enormous human cost of the war.

Numerous diplomatic initiatives and international summits have failed to produce a durable ceasefire.

In August 2025, President Donald Trump welcomed Putin to Alaska for a much-anticipated summit focused on ending the fighting.

Those discussions concluded without an agreement to halt hostilities. Reports afterward indicated that Russia’s demands — including territorial concessions and formal recognition of annexed areas — were deemed unacceptable by Ukraine and its Western allies.

Moscow also continued to insist that Ukraine be denied meaningful security guarantees from the United States, NATO, or leading European powers.

Following the summit, Russian forces intensified their campaign, carrying out ongoing drone and missile attacks against Ukrainian cities, power systems, and other civilian infrastructure.

Just in the past week, Russia unleashed a large-scale wave of drones and missiles aimed at energy facilities and residential districts in several Ukrainian regions, killing and injuring civilians and highlighting the ongoing instability.

Ukraine, increasingly exasperated by stalled negotiations, has answered with expanded strikes inside Russian territory, targeting military and industrial assets in an effort to undermine Moscow’s war-making capabilities.

Human rights groups, U.N. observers, and independent investigators have documented numerous alleged breaches of international humanitarian law during the conflict:

• Russian forces have been accused of deliberately striking civilian sites, including hospitals, schools, electrical grids, and housing complexes — actions that run afoul of the Geneva Conventions.

• Episodes such as the April 2025 airstrike in Sumy, which killed 35 civilians, including children, and wounded 129 others, have been cited as evidence of indiscriminate attacks.

• The International Criminal Court has issued war crimes charges and arrest warrants for Putin and senior Russian officials, including allegations related to the unlawful deportation of children and other offenses, emphasizing the seriousness of the accusations tied to the war.

Many analysts describe repeated attacks on civilian and non-military targets as clear violations of accepted rules of armed conflict and, in some cases, as war crimes.

Policy experts caution that without stronger backing from the United States and its allies, the conflict could settle into a prolonged and destructive stalemate.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, along with numerous Western security specialists, argues that Russia will press forward militarily unless it faces sustained pressure on the battlefield and through diplomacy, calling on Washington to maintain defensive assistance and leadership.

Recent analysis suggests that the war’s consequences extend well beyond Ukraine’s borders.

Zelenskyy has portrayed Putin’s campaign not merely as a regional war but as a trigger for broader global instability comparable to the early stages of a Third World War, urging more robust guarantees from the United States and NATO to deter further escalation.

As the war enters its fourth year, Putin’s original calculation — built on expectations of a rapid triumph and divided Western resolve — has not materialized.

Instead, the conflict has settled into a grinding deadlock that continues to take lives, destroy communities, and alter the security landscape of Europe.

The international community looks on, with hopes that renewed unity and determination from the United States and its partners might yet help Ukraine achieve a just resolution — one that ends the violence and ensures accountability for those responsible.

{Matzav.com}