War in Ukraine Has Passed a Historical Milestone

World War I was called "the war to end all wars." The conflict in Ukraine has now run longer. The New York Times' Constant Méheut notes that Thursday marked day 1,569 of Russia's full-scale invasion, edging past the length of World War I and reinforcing how far off a negotiated end still appears. What began in February 2022 as a campaign the Kremlin expected to win in days has hardened into a grinding, largely static struggle that many Ukrainians now assume will stretch at least into next year.

Méheut lays out why historians keep reaching for World War I analogies—and where they fall short. Both wars saw ambitious opening offensives stall near key capitals; in both conflicts, "the intensity of firepower, mainly artillery, forced armies to turn to trenches." But Ukraine's battlefield has been reshaped by drones, which have driven troops into deeper, smaller dugouts. "In this environment, the people who dig survive longer and stay safer," one Ukrainian soldier says. The "grinding" pace draws another comparison: Russia recently managed to capture Pokrovsk after advancing an average 225 feet per day; that's "slower than in the bloody Battle of the Somme," per Méheut. For the full comparison, read the full piece.