Ukraine’s strategic position has declined over the last six months. The summer offensive, which sparked hope among Ukraine and its supporters, failed to deliver significant territorial gains.
Furthermore, support for Ukraine — a given in 2022 — is increasingly under pressure due to the prolonged nature of the conflict and domestic pressures among its allies.
But this decline in Ukrainian fortunes does not mean, as some have claimed, that the war is unwinnable. Nor would a ceasefire necessarily mean an end to the conflict, given Vladimir Putin and his allies’ past track record in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine.
