Six months of war: Ukraine regains the initiative, but makes no big push

Western allies seem to have provided Ukraine enough assistance to deprive Russia of victory but not to defeat it, so the two countries are likely to be at war for a long time

After six months of war, Russia has failed to overrun Ukraine, install a puppet government in Kyiv, or even fully conquer Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts in the east - its pared-back goal.

Ukraine’s battlefield successes also forced it to lift a Black Sea blockade of Ukrainian food exports, bringing the assaulted country as much as $30bn this year.