AS WE mark two full years since Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainian government forces have withdrawn from Avdiivka, a town they first captured from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in July 2014.

Situated only 10 miles from Donetsk City, Avdiivka gave Ukrainian government forces a base from which their artillery bombarded Donetsk for nearly 10 years. From a pre-war population of about 31,000, the town has been depopulated and left in ruins.
 
The mass slaughter on both sides in this long battle was a measure of the strategic value of the city to both sides, but it is also emblematic of the shocking human cost of this war, which has degenerated into a brutal and bloody war of attrition along a nearly static front line.

Neither side made significant territorial gains in the entire 2023 year of fighting, with a net gain to Russia of a mere 188 square miles, or 0.1 per cent of Ukraine.
 
And while it is the Ukrainians and Russians fighting and dying in this war of attrition with over half a million casualties, it is the US, with some of its Western allies, that has stood in the way of peace talks.