The Wall Street Journal: There are only two options for ending the war! The collapse of the Russian imperial project or

The drone revolution on the Russian-Ukrainian front has made it impossible to repeat the rapid breakthroughs of troops into the strategic depth of enemy territory, as was the case in the early days of the war in Ukraine. And since the Kremlin refuses to enter into peace negotiations, the fate of the war will decide whose economy and society will fail first - Ukraine's or Russia's, writes The Wall Street Journal in an article with the original title – As Putin digs in, a long and different war with Ukraine looms", reports Focus.

"Russia's refusal to accept a ceasefire and the canceled peace meeting in Budapest have raised the gloomy prospect that the war in Ukraine will continue for years to come. President Vladimir Putin remains convinced that Russia will eventually exhaust its smaller neighbor, leading to the collapse of the Ukrainian economy and society,“ the publication states.

The publication notes that despite the Kremlin's hopes, the situation for Ukraine is far from defeat. With strategic breakthroughs made impossible by the drone factor, Kiev hopes to win by exhausting Russia economically with deep strikes on its oil and gas infrastructure – the lifeblood of Putin’s war machine.

"The Ukrainian strategy, as ridiculous as it may seem, is a mirror image of Russia’s strategy: to do everything possible to collapse the Russian economy before the Ukrainian one“, argues Russian opposition politician Ilya Ponomarov, who currently lives in Kiev.

A former senior member of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration, whose name was not mentioned, told the WSJ that the war will probably drag on for several more years, since both sides have the opportunity to continue the fight. According to him, the conflict will end either with the collapse of the Russian imperial project or with the disappearance of an independent Ukraine.

"We continue to expect the political collapse of Russia, as happened with Germany in 1918, when it lost the war, even though there was not a single enemy soldier on German soil at that time. This collapse is not happening now. "But sooner or later, such things always happen," says Russian economist Konstantin Sonin, currently a professor at the University of Chicago's School of Public Policy.