Millions of Ukrainians have fled their homes, while thousands have been killed or injured in the first two weeks of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Russian military, which invaded on three separate axes, has tried to capture the capital city of Kyiv in addition to seaports in the south. Russia has had varying degrees of success in its first 14 days.
In that time, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has repeated false claims that the military incursion was to expose and rid the Ukrainian people of Nazi leaders, has deployed essentially the entirety of the roughly 180,000 troops he had amassed on the border.
While the Pentagon doesn’t believe Putin has deployed additional troops from the interior to the border, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Wednesday that they believe he has more than 90% of his military capabilities available to him.
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One of the military’s axes is from Belarus, which neighbors Ukraine to the north, and that group has unsuccessfully sought to capture Kyiv. They have faced stiffer resistance from Ukrainian forces than they had expected, according to the official, and have remained “stalled” roughly 15 miles from the city.
In addition to being caught off-guard by the Ukrainian resistance, the Russian military looking to take over Kyiv has faced its own problems, including “logistics and sustainment challenges, challenges that we don’t believe they have fully anticipated,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said last week.
Some Russian units are surrendering “sometimes without a fight,” while others are made up of conscripts who have “never been in combat” and “weren’t even told they were going to be in combat,” the official continued. In some instances, Russian troops have punched holes in their vehicles’ gas tanks, likely to avoid going into battle.
Other Russian troops started in the south, and they have sought to capture key port cities along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Russian troops have “closed in on” the city of Kharkiv, the official said Wednesday.
The Pentagon has tallied roughly 710 missile launches throughout the country since the incursion started, nearly all of which occurred in the eastern part of the country. The rockets have, at times, hit residential areas, and they hit a hospital in Mariupol on Wednesday. Videos of the aftermath show parts of the building completely destroyed and portions defaced, exposing wires, as civilians walk out of the hospital grasping each other’s shoulders for support.
The troops have also attacked a nuclear power plant, igniting a fire and raising concerns about the possibility of radiation and nuclear fallout, while also being accused of violating ceasefires and attacking humanitarian corridors.
These attacks have raised the possibility of war crimes, and Vice President Kamala Harris called for an investigation into these allegations during a speech in Poland on Thursday.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported on Wednesday that there have been 516 civilians killed, while another 908 have been wounded. Roughly 40 children were among those who have been killed. There have been more than 2.3 million people who have fled the country, per the U.N.
The U.S. intelligence community estimates with “low confidence” that Russia has lost between 2,000 and 4,000 troops, according to Lt. Gen. Scott David Berrier, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Ukrainian leaders have called for citizens to fight for their freedom, and it has resulted in more than 140,000 Ukrainians living abroad and 20,000 foreigners to sign up to fight for the country of 44 million people. They have also pleaded for military assistance from foreign countries.
The U.S. is among 14 countries that have donated military assistance, although they and NATO have not met all of Ukraine’s requests.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called for NATO or the U.S. to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, but this has not been pursued because it would likely require shooting down Russian planes and would likely be seen as an escalation interpreted as the U.S. becoming involved in the conflict.
Earlier this week, Poland agreed to provide its entire fleet of Russian-made MiG-29s to a U.S. military base in Germany before they would be transferred to Ukraine, but the Pentagon declined the proposal, calling it “not tenable” and “high risk.”
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“First, we believe the best way to support Ukrainian defense is by providing them the weapons and the systems that they need most to defeat Russian aggression,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said during Wednesday’s briefing. “In particular, anti-armor and air defense. We, along with other nations, continue to send them these weapons, and we know that they’re being used with great effect.”
The White House warned Thursday that Russia could be gearing up to launch a chemical weapon attack in Ukraine. They had accused the U.S. of running biological research facilities, a debunked claim, and China has pushed the conspiracy as well, while U.S. officials warned that it’s common for Russia to levy an accusation only to commit the act themselves shortly thereafter.
