It often happens like this in war. Conflicts get bogged down. What’s going to happen seems to narrow — one hill, then another hill — until suddenly it feels wide open again. This is now the case in Ukraine. Two unanswered questions, one concerning Russia and the other China, will determine whether Vladimir Putin is defeated or turns this into a forever war.
Bakhmut is where the first Russian question is posed. Assaulted by the Russian army and the Kremlin’s notorious Wagner mercenary group with human wave attacks for months, the question of whether it will stay in Ukrainian hands is up in the air. In Kyiv, for now, they think they can hold it and that they are bleeding Russia dry in the process. The Ukrainian National Security Council claims that Moscow is losing a shocking seven men to every Ukrainian death.
