January 18, 2026
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has ruled out peace and is now trying to convince the world that Ukraine’s defenses are on the brink of collapse — hoping to push U.S. President Donald Trump into forcing Kyiv to capitulate. But he’s lying, The New York Post wrote in a blistering editorial on Jan. 17.
Four years into the full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s Defense Forces are holding the line, while Russia’s offensive remains sluggish and costly. Pressure should be placed on Putin — not Kyiv — to recognize “the futility of further bloodshed in pursuit of his hopeless dreams of conquest,” the paper wrote.
Despite being outgunned and suffering heavy losses, Ukraine continues to resist and inflict damage. “The Russians are not on the road to victory,” NYP said. Russian troops are losing between 20,000 and 25,000 soldiers each month. In 2025 alone, Moscow sacrificed 93 lives for every square kilometer of Ukrainian territory gained — a staggering rate consistent with previous years. And Russian recruitment is barely covering the losses.
After failing to capture Kyiv in three days, Russian forces have neither broken through Ukrainian defenses nor come close to the capital again. As NYP noted, the war has now lasted longer than the Soviet Union’s fight against Nazi Germany.
Following Russia’s retreat from Kyiv Oblast in early 2022, Putin shifted focus to capturing the remaining parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
“Yes, really — Russia has been trying to seize the rest of the Donbas for nearly four years,” the paper stressed.
Taking full control of the Donbas was Russia’s key objective in 2025 — and it failed again. New targets, now delayed until April 2026, are equally unrealistic. At Russia’s current pace, the invading army wouldn’t reach that goal before mid-2027, the paper said.
Even Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast — under attack for nearly two years — remains out of reach. A new assault on the much larger town of Kostyantynivka has only just begun. Russian troops are still far from advancing on Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the key strongholds in Ukraine’s “fortress belt.”
NYP also highlighted Russian failures elsewhere, particularly near Kupyansk in Kharkiv Oblast.
With battlefield momentum stalled, Putin has leaned heavily on propaganda, the paper said. The Kremlin exaggerates military gains and “uses flag-raisings in disputed zones, cross-border raids, and misleading top-level military briefings to visually prop up the lie.”
Putin’s goal is to win not through force, but by persuading the West that continued aid to Ukraine is pointless. But as long as support from the West holds, “Putin appears to have no good way forward.”
The paper also noted that Ukraine has begun targeting Russia’s oil export infrastructure — a critical pillar of Putin’s war economy.
To be sure, Ukraine faces serious problems: manpower shortfalls, mobilization challenges, Russian strikes on the power grid, and shortages of weapons and ammunition.
“But a Russian victory is not inevitable — and it’s far from guaranteed, despite Putin’s lies,” NYP wrote.
Helping Ukraine succeed on the battlefield and in the air — while tightening economic pressure on Russia — could shift the trajectory of the war. Slowing Russia’s offensive and strengthening Ukraine’s defenses might finally force Putin to reconsider his ambitions, the editorial concluded.
The blood-soaked Führer of the mafia state cannot win this war. All it can do is drag out its eventual defeat.
We will see how well his propaganda works when he’s claiming victory while Moscow has blackouts.
Those blackouts would be there already if Ukraine were to get some Tomahawks or Taurus.