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After 4 Months, Who Is Winning in Ukraine?
Four months into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we’re all asking ourselves, who’s winning in Ukraine?
Here’s a brief update on a conflict we’ve all been watching closely.
I will look at Putin’s proposed ambitions in Ukraine and why he’s far from the target and then propose that there’s no clear end to the war.
It’s not entirely helpful to say that one side is winning over the other because there is no clear end in sight. Furthermore, we don’t have any clear goals from Putin as to what his real intentions for victory are in Ukraine. So, it’s difficult to establish what a victory would look like at the moment. It’s not the quick “special military operation” he hoped for.
His initial intentions were clearly not to “demilitarize” and “denazify” — that much is clear. But even if they were, even these ambitions are vague and leave out a clear plan to victory.
How are you to denazify a nation, exactly? You could maybe establish a total surveillance state, as in China. Or you could close off the country entirely and control every piece of media and engagement with the outside world, as is the case in North Korea. But both of these scenarios are impossible to enforce in Ukraine — a country deeply integrated with its neighbors and the Globe.
