The West's Forgotten War and the New Russia | Mark Galeotti

The Russia-Ukraine war has devolved into a protracted, multi-front conflict characterized by grinding attrition, deep economic strikes, and a political struggle for global influence. Russia sustains its war effort despite staggering human costs—estimated at 1.5 million casualties, including over 500,000 deaths—by relying on volunteers from impoverished regions to avoid broad domestic mobilization. Vladimir Putin, a survival-focused actor, navigates this crisis within an insular echo chamber of loyalist elites, prioritizing his own political security over coherent long-term strategy. Meanwhile, Western support for Ukraine faces mounting uncertainty as European and American domestic political shifts threaten to normalize the conflict and diminish its urgency. Expert Mark Galeotti highlights that the war’s trajectory remains tied to these internal political pressures, as both sides struggle to achieve decisive battlefield leverage while managing the long-term economic and demographic consequences of the ongoing violence.