After waging territorial aggression against its much smaller neighbour for 1,000 days, and after pressing into the war a 12,000-strong contingent of troops from North Korea, Russia is still not able to bring Ukraine to its knees. Despite losing a chunk of its territory to Russians, Ukraine still valiantly fights on, having, in turn, actually occupied a part of Russian territory in the Kursk region. It was the first time since the Second War that anyone had occupied Russian territory. Though the latter is merely a symbolic act which has not forced Putin to divert troops from the theatre of war in Donetsk region, it marked a psychological high for the beleaguered Ukrainians. After a thousand days of war, Russia controls 20% of Ukrainian territory. The seemingly endless war, with neither combatant able to force its will, may now be entering a decisive phase. Donald Trump’s election as the next US President has overnight triggered fast-paced developments. The outgoing US President Joe Biden’s belated approval for Ukraine to use the medium range missiles to attack targets in Russia has come as a shot in the arm for Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. Within hours of the green signal, Ukraine fired a couple of missiles over a hundred kilometres inside Russia, destroying an arms depot. Russia warned that this was........

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