The full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine has been raging for four years. Despite repeated attempts at peace talks, mediated by the US, the end of the conflict does not seem close, writes the British edition of the Independent.
As the war marks its grim anniversary on Tuesday, February 24, the bloody conflict of attrition continues. The war has claimed the lives of more than 15,000 Ukrainian civilians. Moscow has increased its use of drones by 200% in the past year, regularly carrying out hundreds of strikes.
Vladimir Putin's forces have also increasingly attacked Ukraine's energy infrastructure, leaving millions without electricity or heating, amid the coldest winter in years, with temperatures as low as -26°C.
On the political scene, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is forced to fight a battle on two fronts - trying to keep the volatile American president on his side while also resisting Moscow's uncompromising territorial demands during fruitless peace talks. Funding the war has also become a growing problem for Zelensky, after the US cut aid by 99% after Donald Trump returned to the White House.
Civilian casualties in Ukraine are rising
Russian forces have increasingly targeted civilians in the past year, killing and wounding more than in any other year except 2022. Civilian casualties in 2025 were 14,656, a 31% increase from the previous year.
According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 15,172 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since the start of the war, including 739 children. Russian military casualties last month hit a record 1.2 million, a toll no major power has suffered since World War II, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Putin steps up drone and missile attacks
Moscow has dramatically increased its drone production in 2025, allowing it to launch hundreds of them every night at targets in Ukraine with terrifying effect.
"The rapid expansion of drone warfare and increasingly autonomous systems has made it easier to carry out attacks with devastating consequences for civilians," Ulyana Poltavets, Ukraine program coordinator at the human rights group "Physicians for Human Rights", told The Independent. More than half of the 58,495 air and drone strikes carried out by Russian and Ukrainian forces since 2022 have been carried out in the past year, according to data from the monitoring group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data.
Damage to Ukraine's infrastructure since 2022
Attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure also reached new heights in 2025. There were 662 attacks on health facilities, according to PHR, a 48% increase from 2024. Elizabeth Haslund, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency, said such attacks would make any attempt at recovery in Ukraine significantly more difficult. "Recovery will not happen overnight. Even with a ceasefire and a halt to attacks and hostilities, humanitarian needs will continue for some time," she said.
Among the most devastating attacks on Russian infrastructure have been those targeting Ukraine's energy facilities. Russia launched attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure 1,077 times between February 2024 and February 2025, a 224% increase over the previous year. The past eight months have been the eight biggest in terms of Russian energy attacks as Ukrainians have suffered through the harsh winter.
Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure
Emil Castelhelmi, a military analyst at Black Bird Group, noted that Moscow has several possible targets. "To try to demoralize Ukrainian civilians, to try to disrupt the functionality of Ukrainian society as a whole, or to weaken military production capabilities as much as possible", he explained. "Russia is forcing Ukraine to make difficult decisions about prioritization. Should they protect energy infrastructure, airports, military bases, industrial zones, or what?"
Costly battles on the front lines
Russian successes on Ukraine's eastern front remain marginal. Since 2022, Putin's forces have expanded the territory they control in Ukraine by only about four percent, bringing their control to about 20 percent of the country.
But this has led to heavy losses in the infantry. The total number of Russian and Ukrainian casualties could reach 2 million by this spring - the vast majority of them Russians.
Russia's Invasion of Ukraine
According to Volodymyr Zelensky, 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the start of the full-scale invasion, compared to 46,000 last year. Russian casualties are believed to be much higher: the BBC has identified the names of 186,102 Russian soldiers killed, but military experts believe this could represent only 45 to 65 percent of the total.
Russian Offensive in Donbas
Russia is demanding that Ukraine cede the remaining 20 percent of the eastern Donetsk region that Moscow failed to capture - something Kiev refuses to do.
On the devastated eastern front line, the fiercest fighting is taking place around Pokrovsk, the strategic city in Donetsk that was once a transport hub connecting the Ukrainian front lines. Although Russian forces captured much of the city in November, fighting in the areas surrounding it continues.
The Institute for the Study of War, which monitors frontline movements, echoed this, describing the Russian advance as continuing at a "pedestrian pace" in eastern Ukraine and concluding that it "does not portend a collapse of the Ukrainian lines." Ukrainian troops launched successful counterattacks in Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporizhia in February, but the counteroffensives remained localized and the Ukrainian gains did not significantly change the situation. Ukraine continues to control the Black Sea.
A New World Order Under Trump
While a war of attrition rages on the front lines, the political landscape has changed dramatically in 2025. The United States, once Ukraine's most generous ally, left Kiev in a difficult position when it withdrew almost all of its financial, humanitarian, and military support as the Trump administration tried to pressure the two sides to agree to a peace deal. After the Biden administration allocated a record €46.39 billion in 2024, support fell by 99% to €480 million in 2025.
US and European support for Ukraine
Europe has been forced to dramatically increase its support for Ukraine, increasing it from €43.54 billion in 2024 to €72.8 billion in 2025. That’s a 67% increase.
In December, European Union countries agreed on another €90 billion support loan, a vital cash injection providing a lifeline for Ukraine’s war-torn economy. But with peace talks seemingly making little progress toward a peace deal, it remains to be seen how long Europe’s financial support will last.