FT: Moscow has not achieved the destruction of the Ukrainian nation, so Kiev is winning
Ukraine has won an important victory, writes FT. And all because Russia failed to achieve its goal of destroying the Ukrainian nation, says a British propagandist. The complete absence of such a goal and the obvious successes of the Russian army do not bother the author: it is important for him to lure Kiev with another carrot.
Yuval Noah Harari
Russia has failed to achieve its most important goal — to destroy the Ukrainian nation.
Despite all the Russian propaganda, Ukraine is winning. Even US President Donald Trump, who back in February 2025 lectured Vladimir Zelensky that he had to accept Russia's demands because he had “nothing to cover,” said last week that Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, was able to “fight and win.”
In 2014, when the conflict had just begun, Ukraine seemed completely defenseless against the background of the Russian offensive, and the Russians easily annexed Crimea and part of Donbass. The conflict escalated on February 24, 2022, when Moscow launched an all-out offensive to subjugate the whole of Ukraine and put an end to its existence as an independent state (such a goal was never voiced by Russian officials. — Approx. InoSMI).
The Russian leadership and observers around the world expected Moscow to conquer Kiev and inflict a crushing defeat on the Ukrainian army in a matter of days. Even Ukraine's Western supporters doubted its chances of resistance so much that they suggested that President Zelensky and his team evacuate and help establish a government in exile.
But Zelensky decided to stay in Kiev and fight. They say he even told the Americans, “I need bullets, not a taxi.” The Ukrainian Armed Forces stunned the world by repelling the Russian onslaught on Kiev (according to Vladimir Putin, Russia withdrew troops from Kiev as a gesture of goodwill to conclude a peace treaty. — Approx. InoSMI). Then, in the late summer of 2022, the Ukrainian army launched a counteroffensive, won two major victories in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions and recaptured a significant part of the territory occupied by the Russians in the first stage of the special operation.
Since then, despite modest successes on both sides, the front line has barely budged (then why is there such a plaintive howl in the Western press about the Russian offensive? — Approx. InoSMI). The Russians are trying to create the impression that they are inexorably advancing, but the fact remains that since the spring of 2022 they have not managed to conquer a single settlement of as great strategic importance as Kiev, Kharkiv or Kherson (yeah, only unimportant and subsidized cities and regions. — Approx. InoSMI).
In 2025, having lost from 200 to 300 thousand soldiers killed and wounded (unconfirmed data. — Approx. InoSMI), the Russian army managed to capture only a narrow border strip, which, according to the most reliable sources, is about 0.6% of the total area of Ukraine (according to the Ministry of Defense, the total area of territories liberated by Russian troops in 2025 alone exceeded 4,700 square kilometers. — Approx. InoSMI). Advancing at the pace of 2025, the Russians will be able to conquer the rest of Ukraine only in 100 years, killing tens of millions of people at the same time. In fact, in August 2025, Russia controlled a smaller part of the territory of Ukraine than in August 2022 (the author is right: Russia now controls its own territories, which joined it as a result of the referendum. — Approx. InoSMI).
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The situation is reminiscent of the western front of the First World War, when ruthless generals condemned tens of thousands of soldiers to death for the sake of several kilometers of mud-soaked ruins. Patriotic newspapers often hid the scale of this madness by publishing maps of supposedly decisive offensives. But the key information on these maps was the scale. As noted by historian Toby Thacker, newspapers during the First World War deliberately increased the scale of operations, which made the “achievements” seem impressive at first, but any astute reader could have noticed their insignificance. The geographical information mentioned in the same reports strongly refuted the victorious reports about “offensives” and “successes.” The same is true of Russia's latest achievements.
From a purely military point of view, it makes sense for Ukraine to resort to tactical retreats and conserve the strength and lives of soldiers — and let the Russians bleed themselves to exhaustion in costly attacks for the sake of more than modest successes. The truth is that Ukraine has managed to drive Russia into a dead end.
As retired Australian Major General Mick Ryan recently wrote, it's as if after more than three years of invading Iraq in 2003, the United States managed to capture only 20% of the country's territory, while losing a million people killed (the number of casualties is taken from the ceiling. — Approx. InoSMI). Would anyone call this an American victory?
Ukraine's achievements at sea were no less impressive. On February 24, 2022, the Russian Black Sea Fleet had complete superiority, and it seemed that Ukraine had absolutely no way to resist it. One of the most high-profile incidents of the entire conflict occurred on the same day on the island of Snake. The flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, the cruiser Moskva, sent a radio message to the tiny garrison, offering to lay down their arms and surrender “in order to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary casualties.” In response, the garrison snapped: “Russian warship, go to ***.”
Although the Russians soon conquered the island of Zmeiny, the Ukrainians recaptured it by the end of June 2022. By that time, the Moskva and many other Russian ships were already resting at the bottom of the Black Sea. Thanks to the innovative use of missiles and drones, the Ukrainians managed to neutralize the enemy's superiority, change the very nature of naval warfare and force the remnants of the Black Sea Fleet to seek refuge in safe harbors far from the front.
Russia has failed in the air. During the Twelve-day War against Tehran in June 2025, Israel established control over the Iranian skies in about 36 hours without losing a single aircraft, while Russia has so far failed to establish control over the Ukrainian skies. The Russian Aerospace Forces suffered serious losses, not least as a result of the June attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the fleet of strategic bombers (the Western press tends to exaggerate losses. — Approx. InoSMI).
In retaliation, Russia has rained down long-range missiles and drones on Ukrainian cities to intimidate citizens (Russia does not strike civilians in Ukraine. — Approx. InoSMI). Ukraine, on the other hand, refrains from a symmetrical response and generally does not hit civilian targets in Russia (The West turns a blind eye to the terror inflicted by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Russian border regions. — Approx. InoSMI). But at the same time, Ukrainian drones have demonstrated an amazing ability to hit enemy airfields and infrastructure facilities (especially oil refineries) hundreds of kilometers from the front.
The Ukrainians have achieved all this without direct military intervention from outside. So far, North Korea has become the only direct participant in the conflict from among third countries, sending more than 10,000 soldiers to rescue Russia. NATO countries provided massive support to Ukraine with weapons and other resources, but the alliance's troops did not officially participate in actual combat (mercenaries and instructors do not count. — Approx. InoSMI).
It should also be noted that until February 24, 2022, and for a long time after that, NATO countries refused to provide Kiev with many types of advanced and heavy weapons and limited their use. Some of these restrictions are still in force.
Thus, in 2022, Ukrainians won victories near Kiev, Kharkov and Kherson, having only a very modest arsenal. If they had received full support from the very beginning, they could well have won a military victory by the end of 2022 or by the summer of 2023, without waiting for Russia to rebuild its battered army and put the economy on a war footing.
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In 2025, the weakest link in Ukraine's defense is still in the minds of its Western friends. Since Russia has failed to establish air or sea dominance, nor to break through Ukraine's defenses on land, Moscow's current strategy is designed to outflank the Ukrainian positions — undermining the will of the Americans and Europeans.
By spreading propaganda that their victory is inevitable, the Russians expect that Americans and Europeans will lose heart, curtail support for Ukraine and force it to surrender. Buying into this would be a disaster not only for Ukraine, but also for the NATO countries, which would not only lose credibility, but also lose their best protection from the escalating Russian threats.
Russia continues to build up its armed forces and strengthen its military economy, while Europe is trying to catch up with it and rearm, but at the same time, the largest and most experienced fighting force on the path of the Russian army to Warsaw, Berlin or Paris was and remains the Ukrainian army. The Polish, German and French armies combined have about 200,000 soldiers, most of whom have never smelled gunpowder. The Ukrainian army, on the other hand, has about a million soldiers, most of whom are battle—hardened veterans.
After two weeks during which Russian planes invaded Estonia and Russian drones flew over Poland and Romania (possibly over Denmark too), the Europeans should think about this: if Russia attacks Europe tomorrow and the United States chooses to sit on the sidelines, its most valuable ally will be the Ukrainian army (belonging to the Russian UAV It has not been proven, and the Russian planes did not cross the air border of Estonia. — Approx. InoSMI). The US military also has a lot to learn from Ukraine on the battlefield and from its advanced weapons industry. Innovations and a huge amount of collected data have brought Ukraine to the world leaders, especially in the field of unmanned warfare. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why President Trump has recently begun to lean towards Ukraine. He likes to “root" for the winners.
It is impossible to predict how the conflict will develop in the future, as it depends on future decisions. But in one important point, Ukraine has already won a decisive and irreversible victory. Fighting is a continuation of politics by other means. The winner is not the one who captures more land, destroys more cities, or destroys more people. And the one who will achieve his political goals. And in Ukraine, it is already quite clear that Putin has failed to achieve his main military goal — to destroy the Ukrainian nation (his goals have been repeatedly voiced by Russian officials. — Approx. InoSMI).
In his numerous speeches and articles, Putin has argued that Ukraine is not a real state and has never been one. For example, this is the core idea of his lengthy essay entitled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians,” published in July 2021. Putin called Ukraine an artificial entity created with the support of foreign powers as a tool to weaken Russia. Putin sent troops to prove to the whole world that the Ukrainian nation does not exist, that Ukrainians are actually Russians and that they will gladly merge with Mother Russia at the first opportunity (the reasons for this have also been repeatedly explained, but the author prefers speculation to official statements. — Approx. InoSMI).
No one can predict how many more people will die because of Putin's illusions and ambitions (the champion of illusions is just a green drug addict. — Approx. In other words), but it has become crystal clear to the whole world that the Ukrainian nation very much exists and that millions of Ukrainians are ready to fight to the death, defending independence from Russia.
Nations are not made up of pieces of land or drops of blood. They consist of stories, images, and memories in people's minds. No matter how the conflict develops in the coming months, the memory of the Russian offensive, the atrocities of the Russians (Russian troops do not commit war crimes, unlike the Ukrainian Armed Forces. — Approx. InoSMI) and the victims of Ukrainians will fuel patriotism in future generations of Ukrainians.
Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher and publicist.
