Yes.
It’s the simplest, most devastating answer to a question that seems to pop up more frequently as global attention spans flicker and fade. If you’ve found yourself wondering is the Russia Ukraine war still happening, you aren't alone. The news cycle is a monster that demands fresh meat, and lately, it has been feeding on other crises. But for the people in the Donbas or those living under the constant hum of Iranian-designed Shahed drones in Kyiv, the war isn't just "still happening"—it is the only thing happening.
The front lines have largely frozen into a brutal, grinding stalemate that looks more like 1916 than 2026. We are talking about hundreds of miles of trenches, millions of landmines, and a level of artillery usage that most military analysts thought was a relic of the past.
Why it feels like the war vanished from your feed
Most people stop tracking a conflict when the maps stop changing. In the early days of February 2022, the world watched breathless as Russian columns stalled outside Kyiv and then retreated. We saw the lightning-fast Ukrainian counter-offensives in Kharkiv and the liberation of Kherson. Those were big, cinematic moments. They made for great TV.
Now? The gains are measured in yards, not miles.
The battle for places like Avdiivka or Bakhmut lasted months and cost tens of thousands of lives for what essentially amounts to a pile of rubble and a few scorched tree lines. Because the "big arrow" movements on the map have stopped, the mainstream media has drifted toward other shiny objects. Honestly, it's a bit of a tragedy. Just because the borders aren't moving doesn't mean the dying has stopped. It’s actually gotten more intense in some sectors as both sides lean into a war of attrition.
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The shift to a war of drones and electronic warfare
If you walked onto a battlefield in eastern Ukraine today, the first thing you’d notice isn’t the sound of tanks. It’s the buzzing. It sounds like a hornet’s nest.
FPV (First Person View) drones have fundamentally changed how this war is fought. Basically, you can’t move in the open anymore. If a soldier steps out of a trench, there is a high probability a $500 drone strapped with a plastic explosive is already tracking them. This "transparency" of the battlefield means that large-scale surprise attacks are nearly impossible. You see them coming from ten miles away.
Russia has adapted, too. They’ve ramped up their domestic production and are using massive "glide bombs"—Soviet-era munitions fitted with wings and GPS guidance—to pulverize Ukrainian positions from a distance where Ukrainian air defenses can't reach the planes. It’s a terrifying, lopsided evolution of violence.
What is actually happening on the ground right now?
To understand if the war is still happening, you have to look at the three distinct "wars" being fought simultaneously.
First, there is the trench war. This is the meat grinder in the East. Think mud, rats, and constant shelling. Russia continues to throw waves of infantry, often including mobilized men and "Storm-Z" units made of former prisoners, against Ukrainian defenses. They are taking massive casualties, but the Kremlin seems to have decided that they can outlast the West's patience.
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Second, there is the long-range war. This is where Russia targets Ukraine’s power grid and grain silos, while Ukraine uses Western-supplied missiles like ATACMS and Storm Shadow to hit Russian ships in the Black Sea or command centers in Crimea. Ukraine has been remarkably successful here; they’ve effectively forced the Russian Black Sea Fleet to retreat from its main base in Sevastopol, even though Ukraine doesn't even have a traditional navy.
Third, there is the economic and political war. This is fought in Washington D.C., Brussels, and Moscow. Russia has pivoted to a full war economy. They are spending about 6% or more of their GDP on the military. They’ve bypassed many sanctions by selling oil to India and China and getting microchips through third parties like Georgia or Kazakhstan. On the flip side, Ukraine is entirely dependent on Western aid to keep its schools open and its guns firing. If that aid stops, the "frozen" front line starts moving west very, very fast.
The human cost that numbers can’t capture
We talk about 300,000 or 500,000 casualties like they are just stats in a video game. They aren't.
Every time I look at the verified data from groups like Mediazona or Oryx, the scale is numbing. Entire towns have ceased to exist. Maryinka is gone. It is literally a scorched patch of earth. There are thousands of children who have been taken from occupied territories into Russia—a move the International Criminal Court has labeled a war crime, even issuing an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin because of it.
The psychological toll is also immense. You’ve got a whole generation of Ukrainians suffering from PTSD while trying to run startups or teach elementary school classes in subway stations during air raid sirens. It’s a surreal duality. You can go to a fancy cafe in Kyiv and get a flat white, then walk two blocks and see a display of rusted Russian tanks and photos of dead twenty-year-olds.
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Is there an end in sight?
Kinda. But probably not the one people want.
There is a lot of talk about "negotiations," but the reality is that neither side’s goals have changed. Putin still wants a "neutral" (read: vassal) Ukraine. Zelenskyy still insists on the 1991 borders, including Crimea. When two sides have goals that are diametrically opposed and both believe they can still win—or at least not lose—they keep fighting.
Some experts, like those at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), argue that the only way the war ends is if Russia realizes the cost of continuing is higher than the cost of stopping. But with Russia's massive manpower advantage and their ability to source artillery shells from North Korea, they don't feel that pressure yet.
Why this matters for the rest of the world
You might think, "I live in Ohio or London, why should I care if this war is still happening?"
- Global Food Security: Ukraine is the "breadbasket of Europe." If their grain can't get out, food prices in Africa and the Middle East spike, which leads to political instability and migration waves toward Europe.
- The Precedent: If a large country can simply take land from a smaller neighbor by force in 2026, the entire post-WWII international order is dead. It signals to every other ambitious power that "might makes right."
- Technological Proliferation: The drone tech being perfected in Ukraine right now will be used by cartels, terrorists, and other militaries within years. It’s a global laboratory for the future of killing.
What you can do to stay informed
The war hasn't stopped, but our attention has. If you want to actually understand what’s going on without the filter of twenty-second TikTok clips, you have to go deeper.
- Follow the mappers: Sites like DeepStateMap.Live provide daily updates on troop movements. It’s dry, but it’s accurate.
- Read the ISW reports: The Institute for the Study of War puts out a daily briefing. It’s the gold standard for military analysis.
- Support local journalism: Outlets like The Kyiv Independent or The New Voice of Ukraine provide on-the-ground reporting that international networks often miss.
- Check the "Oryx" database: If you want to see the literal hardware being lost—tanks, trucks, aircraft—this team verifies every single loss with photographic evidence. It’s the most honest way to track the attrition.
The Russia Ukraine war is a marathon of misery. It is a slow-motion car crash that has been playing out for years, and it shows no signs of a quiet conclusion. Whether it’s through the lens of geopolitics or simple human empathy, looking away doesn't make it stop. It just makes the eventual outcome more of a shock when it finally breaks back into the headlines. Keep your eyes open. The history of the 21st century is being written in the trenches of the Donbas right now, and we are all, in some way, part of the story.
To get a clearer picture of the current state of affairs, monitor the specific delivery of long-range capabilities to Ukraine and the internal stability of the Russian economy; these are the two levers that will ultimately determine if the frontline remains a stalemate or begins to shift decisively in the coming months.