The Russian invasion of Ukraine is about to pass 1,000 days

Putin's military might is probably not the most potent in the world anymore

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Ukrainian soldiers prepare a reconnaissance drone. (Photo: Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images)

As Ukraine waits to see what the new Trump administration’s policy towards the war with Russia will be, Kyiv’s troops will pass their 1,000th day of bitter fighting.

They have stunned the world with their innovation in drone technology, guerilla battle tactics taking out armoured fighting units in lightning quick assaults and ambushes.

On Tuesday the 1,000th day of Russia’s full-scale invasion will pass, and although it is just a milestone that is the exact amount of time Vladimir Putin has been denied access to Kyiv.

It is often joked in Eastern Europe that Putin once was thought to have the second most potent military in the world - which has now been reduced to being the second most powerful in Ukraine.

Days before the invasion back in 2022 I was driving back to Kyiv from Chernobyl, north of the capital, through dense spruce and pine forests as Russian troops gathered on the Belarus border.

I recall asking a Ukrainian Border Guard Service officer how Ukraine planned to resist and fight an armoured invasion from both the North and the East.