24 February 2026 marks four years since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine and the start of a long war. With an estimated death toll of over 500,000, it is the deadliest conflict on the European continent since the Second World War. Drones alone are responsible for 80 to 90% of these casualties.

However, peace still seems a long way off: talks, led by the Americans, have stalled in the face of Putin’s intransigence. At the forefront of support for Kyiv, the European Union has announced that it will grant its €90 billion loan to Ukraine ‘one way or another’, despite the refusal of Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán. As the war enters its fifth year, Volodymyr Zelensky paid tribute to the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people: ‘Putin has not achieved his goals. He has not broken the Ukrainians. He has not won this war.’

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