Feb. 15, 2024
By Sean Disbrow
Staff Writer
Feb. 24 will mark two years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Since the start of the war, over 130,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed, severely wounded or gone missing, compared to over 200,000 Russian soldiers, according to Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
Junior Nataliya Krupa, who lived in Ukraine until she was three years old, said Ukraine’s efforts in holding Russian forces back have been better than she expected.
“It’s not the best, but it’s not as bad as we thought it would be in the beginning,” Krupa said. “The territory Russia took, Ukraine got back.”
Ukraine has reclaimed from Russia territories such as Bilohorivka, the Donbas and Luhansk Oblast.
Despite these victories, Krupa—who has family in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Lviv and Ternopil—said Ukraine still faces serious obstacles.
“President Zelensky is doing his best to appeal to the United States, but the United States is very divided, and American politics [is] affecting the war in Ukraine.”
“[Challenges include] keeping their territory away from Russia and not having enough people to [defend] Ukraine [because] the population of Ukraine [continues] to get lower,” Krupa said.
Russia persists in launching drone attacks and conducting air strikes into Ukraine. During one of these attacks, which took place on Jan. 2, Russia launched 500 missiles and drones at the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, leading to the deaths of 32 people. A missile attack on Jan. 23 left 18 dead and 130 injured, according to the world news website BBC.com.
History teacher Mr. Tessalone said the war has not de-escalated, and even though fewer people are talking about it, it is as important as it was at the start.
“Villages and towns have been bombed and seriously damaged,” Tessalone said. “People are continuing to lose loved ones, and there are going to be refugees [in countries] around Ukraine.”
Over six million people have fled Ukraine. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there have been over 5,953,500 refugees in Europe and over 403,500 refugees going beyond Europe.
Tessalone said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been trying to get more help from the United States.
“President Zelensky is doing his best to appeal to the United States, but the United States is very divided, and American politics [is] affecting the war in Ukraine,” Tessalone said.
He said the United States has provided much-needed aid to Ukraine, but he is concerned some weapons have not reached their intended destinations.
“More than a billion dollars’ worth of weapons were not tracked and could’ve been stolen or diverted elsewhere,” Tessalone said.
History teacher Mr. Duus said in 2022, countries around the world implemented sanctions against Russia.
“Russian finance is frozen throughout much of the world. Many Western countries have also ceased operating in Russia. Russian exports are also blocked in many nations,” Duus said. “Although it has made many goods less available in Russia, the sanctions have not altered Russia’s ability to wage war.”
Russia has been receiving aid from countries including Belarus, China, India, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Turkey, according to Ukraine’s English-language newspaper The Kyiv Post.
Duus said the war is nowhere close to being over.
“Neither Russia nor Ukraine have been able to defeat each other militarily, and diplomacy has not succeeded in solving the conflict,” said Duus.
