Latest attack adds to mounting casualty toll as Ukraine war nears 4-year anniversary
Two days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Moscow launched a massive aerial bombardment against Ukraine’s already battered power grid.
According to The New York Times, Sunday’s barrage included hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles as Russia continued attacks on Ukraine’s electricity grid during what officials described as the coldest winter in more than 10 years.
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 274 of 297 drones and 33 of 50 missiles, while officials said the extent of damage to the power grid was unclear. In Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, a 49-year-old man was killed and 15 others, including four children, were wounded. Further west in Lviv, explosions killed a 23-year-old police officer and injured at least 24 other people.
Ukrainian officials said it was not clear who was behind the Lviv explosions, and Russia has not claimed responsibility.
The assault arrived on the heels of U.S.-mediated peace talks in Geneva that concluded without major breakthroughs. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the lack of progress lies squarely with Moscow.
“Last time in Geneva,” Zelenskyy said, “the American side clearly saw that it is precisely the Russians who are the reason no truly meaningful results had yet been achieved. And the next meeting must not be a wasted opportunity — it can be done.”
The next round of negotiations is expected to begin in March.
A grinding war of attrition
As Europe’s largest conflict since World War II enters its fifth year, the human toll has reached staggering heights.
A recent assessment by the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that as many as 1.8 million Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed, wounded, or reported missing across both sides.
The think tank calculates that Russia has suffered up to 325,000 military fatalities, while Ukraine has lost as many as 140,000 troops. Neither government regularly publishes transparent casualty data, making independent verification difficult.
Civilians continue to bear a disproportionate burden. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission, cited by The Associated Press, has verified nearly 15,000 civilian deaths, including more than 750 children, and more than 40,000 injuries since February 2022.
The U.N. said 2025 was the deadliest year for civilians since 2022, with a 31% increase in civilian casualties compared with 2024.
Furthermore, the conflict has triggered a massive demographic crisis. The U.N. reports that 5.9 million Ukrainians have fled the country as refugees, while another 3.7 million remain internally displaced. Physicians for Human Rights reported 2,591 attacks affecting the provision of medical care in Ukraine through Feb. 12, including strikes on health care facilities and damage to vehicles and medical supply storage.
Static frontlines and shifting alliances
The Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine’s defenses are not on the verge of collapse, noting that Russia’s territorial control has changed only modestly since its high point in early 2022. Russia controlled about 19% of Ukraine at the end of 2025, about 1.5 percentage points more than at the end of 2022.
The lack of movement on the battlefield is mirrored by shifting dynamics in foreign military support. The U.S. halted the delivery of weapons to Kyiv after President Donald Trump took office last year.
Consequently, the Kiel Institute found that overall foreign military aid to Ukraine was 13% lower in 2025 than the average for the years 2022 through 2024. However, European nations have scrambled to fill the void, surging their own military assistance by 67% compared to previous averages.
Deep historical roots
While the current escalation began in 2022, the underlying conflict between Russia and Ukraine has been burning for a decade. According to historical analysis from EBSCOhost and the BBC, hostilities erupted in 2014 when a pro-Western revolution in Kyiv ousted Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych. In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed the strategic Crimean Peninsula and began backing armed separatist rebellions in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
When Putin launched the full-scale invasion in 2022, he justified the assault by claiming a need to “demilitarize and denazify” Ukraine, while falsely accusing Kyiv of committing genocide against Russian speakers in the east. The BBC reported that Russian claims of genocide in eastern Ukraine are not supported by evidence and that no international body has described the situation as genocide.
Putin has repeatedly portrayed NATO’s eastward expansion and the possibility of Ukraine joining the alliance as a security threat, and the BBC notes that Ukraine’s constitution includes an ambition to join the EU and NATO.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
