Vladimir Putin’s war appears to be one without end. Six months to the day that Russian forces invaded Ukraine, the world is weary of the war, including a sizeable section of the population in Russia who are said to be switching off their TV sets, so sick and tired of the propaganda machine spinning tales are they.
Far from celebrating its Independence Day on August 24, Ukraine was shrinking in fear of reprisal attacks for the Moscow killing of a Putin ideologue’s daughter, Darya Dugina. Preoccupied with its cost-of-living crisis induced by curbs on supply of Russian energy sources, the EU was in danger of switching off from Ukraine’s struggles just as UK envoys are carrying messages about not cutting aid now while reminding their old continental friends not to give up on Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s war effort against Russian aggression.
The world’s largest military-industrial complex, in the US of course, is about the only one with its eyes still glued to the war in Europe as US President Joe Biden pledged another $3 billion as aid in the biggest weapons package to date. At the same time, the US was asking its citizens to leave Ukraine ahead of the feared increase in strikes by an angry Russia. Some of those munitions and smart, long-range bombs might help Ukraine keep up its strikes on Crimea that is embarrassing the Kremlin.
The only one who can call off this war is Mr Putin, the Russian honcho still sold on his dream of recapturing the glory by uniting ethnic Russians from the cradle of their civilisation that Ukraine is imagined to be. It should come as no surprise if, six months later, the war is still on through its anniversary because the Russian army is busy in east and south Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the world shivers at the prospect of any earth-shaking event in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that is held by Russia and still tended to by Ukrainian engineers. When will good sense prevail in this endless war that is defying Russian military superiority? Not soon enough by the looks of it, though anti-war sentiment is building up in Russia.
