As the Russian artillery fires into Mariupol and Ukrainian forces continue to push back the Kremlin’s advances on the edge of Kyiv, a single question is hovering over Europe: how does this bloodshed end?
The first phase of this war is now coming to a close. Russian forces have made relatively little movement on their northern and eastern fronts now for two weeks. Meanwhile in the south, where the armies that erupted out of Crimea enjoyed the greatest success, they have stalled on the approaches to Mykolaiv and have instead focused on subduing the city of Mariupol to complete their land-bridge from the annexed peninsula to the fake-republics the Kremlin runs in the Donbas. Exhaustion, attrition, logistical failure and low morale explain the Russian pause.
