Soldiers have to ration ammunition, including 155mm shells, which are critically important in the incessant artillery duels with Russian troops. And so in 2024 the Ukrainian army will carry on, trying to hold the line along the 600-mile front. With an estimated 50,000 killed or wounded every six months, Russia’s astronomical casualty rate of 37 percent is comparable to the British army’s attrition in World War I. There is $133 billion left in the last-resort National Welfare Fund, one-fifth of which Putin already scooped last year. For his part, Putin is likely to hope that Trump’s election could get Moscow a better—and permanent—peace deal in 2025.

Source: Washington Post February 27, 2024 13:46 UTC