Six months after Russia invaded Ukraine, here is a different take on how to help Kyiv win the war.
On the military side, Ukraine’s brave fighters have pushed the aggressor into a stalemate. But Vladimir Putin remains determined to destroy the Ukrainian state while committing hideous war crimes. The war is likely to drag on indefinitely, because Ukrainians still don’t have the long-range weapons needed to win it but refuse to bow to Kremlin control.
Yet a second, less visible war is being waged on the civilian side. Cities and towns liberated from Russian control must rebuild from Russia’s deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure. The Kyiv School of Economics estimates that more than 130,000 civilian buildings — city halls, universities, schools, hospitals and clinics, houses, apartment blocks, malls, office buildings, and airports — have been targeted by Russian missiles and shells.
