Die Ukraine verliert nicht. Russland gewinnt nicht.

Anne Applebaum: “In a field outside of Kyiv last weekend, a van was parked discreetly behind some trees. Inside the van there were no passenger seats, just a long desk, two office chairs, two laptops, extra screens. Outside appearances to the contrary, this was a mobile drone-interceptor base, one of hundreds of similar vehicles now scattered around Ukraine. It’s also part of something much bigger: a set of technological advances that have changed the war with Russia, and maybe all wars, forever.

“On one of the laptops, a soldier showed me a bird’s-eye view of a part of the Ukrainian countryside more than 100 miles away. His job is to identify the objects flying above it, to distinguish birds and bats from lethal Russian drones. When he sees the latter, the soldier on the laptop beside him can then direct an interceptor—a small drone that looks like a miniature rocket ship—to track and destroy the incoming Russian aerial vehicles before they hit their targets.

“The AI-powered drone interceptors are made possible by a complicated network of radar systems, acoustic sensors, and other tools that hundreds of large and small Ukrainian tech companies are creating and updating every day, using data they get directly from soldiers like the ones I met. Almost none of these companies existed four years ago. They have emerged from a tech-literate civil society whose members changed their professions or their focus to help defend their country…

“Ukrainian military technology has been evolving rapidly since the first years of the war. But only now are outsiders—in Europe, the United States, the Persian Gulf, and of course Russia—beginning to understand what that evolution means. Since 2022, many public arguments about the war, even in Europe and the U.S., have adopted the narrative put out by Russian propaganda, tacitly assuming that Ukraine, outmanned and outgunned, would eventually lose. Helping Ukraine was a way to stave off disaster, nothing more. When the Trump administration stopped sending military and financial aid to Kyiv in 2025, some in Washington expected (and maybe wanted) the end to come quickly…

“Suddenly, many people have understood that the Russian narrative is wrong: The Ukrainians are not losing. The Russians are not winning, and more important, they don’t know how to win. Ukrainians and outside analysts have described this dynamic in three main theaters of the war.”

Read more: [https://theatln.tc/FUk0tvTg](https://theatln.tc/FUk0tvTg) 

Ukraine is in a better position now from what I can tell. Perhaps we see an end next year?

Defending country wins in a stalemate. Russia loses on both of fronts (military supremacy of the Eastern hemisphere, and loss of Russian lives.)

Putin loses has permanently stained his legacy. No matter how you feel about him, this will be a negative outcome for him.

Honestly they’ve both already lost in a sense. Irreparable relationships, damaged demographics, destroyed towns, economic losses, and generation shaped by war. Even if one side achieves its gapls the long term trajectory of the region is brutal. The question isn’t just who wins but what’s left when it’s over.

This time next year, the Atlantic headline will be: „Ukraine is Winning, Barely.“

I think the double standards we use to judge this conflict are misguided.

Ukraine still holds after having a large part of its infrastructure destroyed and having half the population it had in 1991 and yet it almost seems Ukraine is turning the tide by embarrassing Putin at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.