Civilian casualties are also growing: Last year was the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since the invasion and nearly 6 million Ukrainians still live abroad as war refugees, according to the United Nations.
For those who choose to stay behind, conditions inside the war-ravaged country are increasingly intolerable. The power grids of Ukrainian towns and cities are bombarded nearly daily, leaving millions to freeze in the dark during one of the harshest winters in years.
Nataliia Sukhar left her home in northeastern Kharkiv after the war broke out, catching a 15-hour train to Berlin with her then 5-year-old son Gleb on a journey followed by NBC News. She returned to Ukraine in August 2022 and now lives with her family in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region.
“I returned because we felt back then that we belonged in Ukraine,” Sukhar, 36, said in a series of messages on Telegram. “Now that fervor has significantly faded.”
Sukhar, who gave birth to another son just months ago, said the war dragging on has left Ukraine trapped. “The choice is either to surrender a third of Ukraine and allow the aggressor to advance even further into the country or to continue the war at the very limit of our human and economic resources,” she added.
Putin has made it clear that he wants the entirety of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, despite Kyiv still holding territory there. Ukraine has rejected the idea, creating a stalemate that persists even as the war takes its toll on both countries.
While Russians have shown some signs of mounting disquiet over the effects of the Kremlin’s war, authorities have sought to showcase the state’s determination to see the fight to its conclusion.
Marking “Defender of the Fatherland Day” in Russia on Monday, just a day before the fourth anniversary, Putin reiterated his justification for invading Ukraine as he handed out state awards to troops, saying that Russia was “fighting for its future.”