Will Ukraine’s fate be decided in Alaska?
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet today in Alaska to discuss the future of the war in Ukraine. Not present: anyone from Ukraine.
The facts are not in flux. The battle lines have barely shifted over the last few years. The objectives of Russia and Ukraine haven’t changed.
And yet anything could happen, because nobody knows what Trump will do. In the last seven months, his positions on the war have swung wildly. He humiliated Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s leader, in the Oval Office, and then criticized Putin’s “bullshit” and threatened sanctions on Moscow.
Last week, Trump abruptly gave the Russian president a long-desired one-on-one meeting — and left Zelensky off the guest list. Ukraine and its European allies now fear that Trump will cut a deal with Putin.
Here are some ways to understand the war:
Who’s winning? After Ukraine savaged Russia’s underequipped forces in 2022, Putin re-engineered his country to serve the war. Russia has paid huge sums to recruit new soldiers and invested heavily in Iranian-designed drones. Putin has been willing to sacrifice his own soldiers, incurring about twice as many casualties as Ukraine. This multimedia story by Times journalists in Europe shows how the grinding war of attrition now favors Russia.
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| Source: Institute for the Study of War with American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project (extent of Russia-controlled areas). As of Aug. 13. |
Ukraine can still hurt Russia: It has shown how drone warfare can make up for having less money and fewer soldiers. Consider Operation Spider’s Web, Ukraine’s sneak attack that caused billions of dollars in damage deep inside Russia. The drones it used each cost as little as $600. Listen to this fascinating episode of The Daily about the operation.
The Trump-Putin relationship: Trump still seems to hold Russia’s president in high regard, reflecting his general admiration for strongmen. He’s still annoyed about accusations that Russian interference helped him get elected in 2016. As Mark Mazzetti, an investigative reporter in D.C., put it, “Mr. Trump’s anger about what he calls the ‘Russia hoax’ has festered for years, a grievance so deep he now sees Mr. Putin as his ally in victimhood.”
The war that changed war: Thousands of drones have turned the skies over Ukraine (and sometimes Russia) into a lethal laboratory. It spurred a Darwinian contest to see who can dominate the conflict, and perhaps every conflict thereafter. Read this mind-blowing story by C.J. Chivers, who documented the drone arms race.
| A woman fled after Russian bombs exploded in Kharkiv, Ukraine, last month. David Guttenfelder/The New York Times |
The human cost: The war has reshaped global politics, but it’s being fought by real people. More than a million Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or severely wounded. Civilians have suffered grievously. Spend some time with the work of my photojournalist colleagues, who have recently covered the evacuees fleeing a Russian advance, severely wounded Ukrainian soldiers who returned to the fight and the bloody toll of Russia’s intensified attacks.
More supplies enter Gaza, but not enough
The Israeli agency coordinating aid deliveries into Gaza said about 300 trucks have entered the enclave in each of the last few days, driving down some food prices.
But humanitarian groups and the U.N. say it’s not enough. Many of the trucks have been intercepted by desperate people and gunmen before reaching their destination. Other obstacles, they said, include the limited routes into Gaza and long waits at Israeli checkpoints.
Related: With the world’s attention on Gaza, extremist settlers in the West Bank are carrying out one of the most violent and effective campaigns of intimidation and land grabbing since Israel occupied the territory in 1967. Our reporting found that masked settlers typically sneak into Palestinian villages in the dead of night, setting fire to vehicles and buildings.
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| MORNING READ |
| Jungle (“Back on 74”); Universal Pictures (“Sweet Charity”); FKA twigs (“Childlike Things”); NYCB (Kay Mazzo in “Duo Concertante”) |
Ever feel unsure where to look while watching a dancer? Our dance critic has a tip: Start with the hands.
They can guide the eyes and punctuate the body’s sentences. In Martha Graham’s modern dance, a cupped hand is used as a spiritual gift to the heavens. In flamenco, the arm work has its own rich vocabulary. “God gave us four fingers and a thumb,” said the choreographer George Balanchine, “and I want to see them all.” Read more.
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| ARTS AND IDEAS |
Steve Buscemi is just glad people are watching
He perfected the role of a star-crossed schmuck in some of the most acclaimed films and TV shows of the past 40 years, including “Fargo” and “The Sopranos,” while fiercely protecting his private life. Everyone knows of Buscemi — but almost nobody pronounces his name correctly (It’s Boo-SEM-ee, not Boo-SHEH-mee).
We talked to Buscemi about his new role in Season 2 of “Wednesday,” a Netflix show from the Addams Family canon that’s the streamer’s most popular English-language show ever.
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Cook: These lettuce wraps are fast, fresh and comforting, with jabs of hot and cold.
