Just to refresh our memory, Ukraine is an independent, sovereign country in Eastern Europe that was unprovokedly attacked and invaded by Russia on 24 February 2022.
Around the world, national leaders condemned the brazen attack and promised swift and firm action against Russia.
It has been a long, cruel war since then — lasting almost four years — so it may be worthwhile to recall some of the devastating effects and consequences of Russia’s “special military operation.”
First of all, more than 140,000 Ukrainian service members have been killed and wounded. Another 60,000 Ukrainian soldiers remain missing.
Approximately 15,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and more than 40,000 wounded by Russia’s indiscriminate targeting of Ukrainian cities, including schools and kindergartens, hospitals and religious places, homes and other non-military targets. Included in the grim numbers are the more than 600 children who have been killed and the more than 1,700 who have been injured “in their beds, in hospitals and playgrounds…”
Russia has forcibly transferred between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens (including some 260,000 children) to Russian territory.
An estimated 10 million desperate people have fled Ukraine and nearly seven million have been internally displaced making for a total of more than one-third of Ukraine’s pre-invasion population.
Russian forces have occupied around 12% of Ukrainian territory.
Russian strikes have devastated Ukraine’s energy, power, and other infrastructure, leaving it with only 10% of its original thermal power generation; destroying 60% of its pre-invasion gas production leaving nearly 60% of Kyv without power as of January 21; destroying 40% of its hydropower installations — all leaving nearly 60% of Kyv without power as of January 21 — and inflicting nearly $6 billon in damages to its rail system.
The world let out a sigh of relief when Donald Trump, while campaigning for the presidency of the United States, repeatedly promised that he would “have the war settled in one day…”
One year has passed since Trump’s return to the White House and the war and the carnage continues to rage.
However, we should not be too critical. The president has had many much more pressing issues to deal with. Such as:
* Renaming geographical entities and treasured institutions.
* Withdrawing from critical global organizations and accords.
* Throwing himself an authoritarian-like military birthday parade.
* Throwing tantrums because he did not receive the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
* Making “Revenge is a dish best served cold” a White House permanent plat du jour.
* Redrawing congressional maps to gain additional conservative seats in the 2026 midterms.
* Obstinately continuing to claim and preparing to “prove” that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
* Plotting to seize natural resources from other countries, even to make our neighbor to the North the 51st state.
* Waging unnecessary trade wars and imposing tariffs on friend and foe…even on penguins and seals on an uninhabited island.
* Deploying the National Guard – even active duty military – to confront “the internal enemy” on the streets of American cities.
* Targeting for retribution political opponents, institutions, law firms; curtailing and suppressing Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech.
* Demolishing the East Wing of the White House in order to build the biggest, gawdiest, most ostentatious ballroom to waltz the sleepless nights away.
* Removing or altering historical facts from government and public institutions (and replacing one of them with a portrait of himself and his Russian buddy).
* Dismantling vital Departments, agencies and institutions that benefit Americans and people around the globe and withholding critical domestic and international aid from the neediest.
Not only have Ukrainians (and Russians) continued to be killed in the year since Trump took office (Trump himself recently claimed that, in December 2025, “29,000 people died. Mostly soldiers” in Ukraine), but conditions have worsened in several areas:
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) says in a recent update that 2025 was the deadliest year for civilians in Ukraine since the war started, with 2,514 civilians killed and 12,142 injured.
According to the reputable Institute for the Study of War (ISW), in 2025 Russian forces “increased their average rate of advance…” The Russians launched “over 54,000 long-range drones and over 1,900 missiles against Ukraine…largely [targeting] Ukraine’s energy grid with devastating effects…also significantly increased their strikes against Ukrainian railway infrastructure…”
In the deadliest attack in 2025, the U.N Human Rights Organization says, “…long-range weapons launched by the Russian Federation struck the western city of Ternopil on 19 November, killing at least 38 civilians, including eight children. Ten families lost at least two members each. At least 99 others, including 17 children, were injured.”
More recently, in January 2026, as temperatures continue to plunge and are forecast to dip to as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 30 degrees F) in the coming days, Russia continues its campaign to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure causing severe power outages, civilian casualties and immeasurable misery.
Ukraine’s energy minister said on January 16 that there is “not a single power plant left in Ukraine that the enemy has not attacked.”
Overnight, after Trump announced that Putin had agreed to pause air strikes on Kyiv and other towns for a week, Russia launched a massive ballistic missile and drone attack on Ukraine.
Now that we have settled “eight wars PLUS”, have control over Venezuela’s oil, have “resolved” the Greenland issue, and have placed an icy, iron fist on the people of Minneapolis, we can perhaps focus on ending the tragedy in a place called Ukraine.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62n922dnw7o
https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-grinding-war-ukraine
https://www.wsj.com/world/russia-ukraine-rail-network-target-1131796d
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/us/politics/russia-ukraine-casualties.html
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