Explore Article | 12-06-2025

Russia Ukraine War

Politics

Three years since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia still occupies roughly 20 percent of the country after gaining over four thousand square kilometers of territory in 2024. Russia continues to bombard Ukrainian cities, while Ukraine maintains drone attacks on Russian ships and military vehicles. Since January 2022, Ukraine has received about $407 billion in aid, including over $118 billion from the United States. Fighting and air strikes have inflicted over 40,000 civilian casualties, while 3.7 million people are internally displaced, and 6.9 million have fled Ukraine. 12.7 million people need humanitarian assistance. As the United States works to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, the Trump administration's approach has escalated tensions between Kyiv and Washington and strained relations with NATO allies. The United States has pressured Ukraine to make concessions, including recognizing Crimea as Russian territory. After a two-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump announced that Russia and Ukraine will enter into immediate ceasefire negotiations, specifying in a post on Truth Social that the conditions for any agreement will be determined only by the two warring parties. Earlier in the month, Putin refused to engage in the direct peace talks he proposed take place in Turkey, instead sending a Russian delegation that Zelenskyy called "very low-level" after several days of confusion.