Financial Times explained why Ukraine is winning the war

Russia in its aggression against Ukraine has failed to achieve its key goal of wiping the Ukrainian nation off the world map. Contrary to Kremlin propaganda, it is Ukraine that is winning the war, writes Israeli philosopher and historian Yuval Noah Harari in a column for the Financial Times.

He notes that Ukraine has surprised the world: in 2014 it seemed defenceless, and in February 2022 most analysts expected its quick surrender. But Zelensky stayed in Kiev, the AFU thwarted the Russian blitzkrieg and liberated Kharkiv and Kherson regions.

According to Harari, by 2025, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of casualties, the Russian army has captured only about 0.6 per cent of Ukraine's territory.

At this rate, it will take Russia tens of millions of lives and 100 years to conquer the country. Moreover, Moscow controlled less territory in August 2025 than it did in August 2022," he writes.

Harari notes that Ukraine has driven Russia into a stalemate: at sea it sank the flagship Moskva, in the air it has dealt painful blows to the Russian Air Force, and on land it has deprived the Kremlin of strategic victories. At the same time, Kiev has achieved all this without the direct involvement of NATO armies, relying on limited assistance from allies.

Harari calls the main threat to Ukraine not Russia, but the doubts of Western countries. He says the Kremlin is banking on European and US fatigue.

The most experienced army standing between Russian forces and Warsaw, Berlin and Paris is the Ukrainian one, he reminds.

Harari emphasises: victory in war is not measured by the number of cities destroyed, but by the achievement of political goals. Putin wanted to prove that the Ukrainian nation did not exist, but it was the invasion that strengthened Ukrainian identity and patriotism forever.