Carson Neuhausen | Sports Editor
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Analysts expected Ukraine to succumb to the overwhelming force of the world’s third-strongest military within the week. Almost three years later, Ukraine has been fighting for every inch of its homeland. And after three years of grueling defensive trench warfare, Ukraine has gone on the attack.
In the early hours of August 6th, 2024, Ukraine had mobilized a large fighting force into the Russian territory, Kursk. Ukrainian troops have taken over 1,200 square kilometers and forced an evacuation of over 300,000 people. Most numbers, including the amount of invading and defending troops, death tolls, casualty numbers, and total captured, are not public knowledge and can only be estimated. Ukraine is less than 375 miles away from Moscow and has taken many different large towns and villages.
“I didn’t even know the war was still going on,” Doran Farrell, a student at San Clemente High School, mentioned. “I thought Ukraine lost.”
Ukraine has proven to be a more than capable force, while also being a massive embarrassment for the Kremlin. Russian nuclear policy states that if invaded, they can use nuclear action to deter the invading country. Ukraine called their bluff and succeeded in proving that Russia’s threats were empty and that Russia didn’t have the leadership capabilities to organize a large counter-strike. This is the first time since World War II that foreign troops have touched ground on Russian soil. The invasion of Ukraine is not only a strategic move to gain a territorial advantage in the war but also a plan to devastate the already low Russian morale. Russian soldiers in Kursk are under-equipped, exposed, and largely inexperienced. This has led to a spike in Russian casualties over the last month. Russia is losing a staggering 1,000 soldiers a day fighting the war on the Donetsk, Donbas, and Kursk fronts.
Most Russian troops across the front are undertrained conscripts under the age of 21 with little to no real combat experience. The media is calling the Russian infantry the “Russian Meat Grinder” due to the extremely high losses.
The war in Ukraine is an extremely complex and devastating situation that will most likely last a few more years. This incursion into Russia is going to prolong the process of the war ending and will most likely result in thousands more casualties. How or when this war will end cannot be known, but one can hope a diplomatic solution will come soon.
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