Time is against you. Five disturbing signals for Putin

As of Thursday, June 11, 2026, the conflict in Ukraine has crossed the grim milestone of 1,569 days. According to Newsweek magazine, this means that it has lasted longer than the First World War.

“It is tempting to think that the length of the war favors Russia, a larger country with a higher tolerance for losses and a larger and more powerful arsenal of weapons. But that is false comfort for Moscow. Time is actually against Putin,” the magazine said.

According to Newsweek, there are five warning signs for the head of the Kremlin indicating how the war in Ukraine is developing.

While it is believed that the Kremlin can survive almost any long war by overcoming sanctions with the help of partners such as China and North Korea, and as it recycles nationalist slogans to drive men to the front lines, the warning signs for the Kremlin chief are more than clear.

Because time has allowed Ukraine to learn, diversify its supply chain and change the battlefield with drones, while developing a long-strike capability through domestic missile development and production.

On June 1, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) estimated that Russian forces took control of 41 square kilometers of Ukraine between December 2025 and May 2026, while losing roughly 281 square kilometers. Last year, during the same period, the Russians advanced by approximately 516 square kilometers, which means that this year’s territorial increase was less than eight percent of last year’s pace, according to ISW.

Ukrainian forces have captured almost 100 square kilometers more than they lost, according to their commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, and have gained more than 600 square kilometers since the beginning of 2026. Putin can still kill and destroy, but the map of the war clearly no longer rewards him for it, Newsweek noted.

Ukraine’s campaign of deep strikes is another sign that the war that Putin tried to limit to his neighbor is increasingly seeping back into Russia. For example, on Wednesday, Ukrainian FP-5 Flamingo missiles hit a Russian military plant in Cheboksary more than 900 kilometers from the front line, and drones hit a refinery in Russia’s Samara region and two oil facilities in the Vladimir region, about 710 kilometers from the front.

Long-range strikes do not have to cripple the Russian war machine overnight to have any meaning. All it takes is for him to break Putin’s belief that Ukraine should live under constant threat, while Russia must remain inviolable. Ukrainian strikes in the Russian rear increase domestic pressure on Putin.

Russia built a land bridge to Crimea. Ukraine is now trying to turn it into a toll road – the Russians pay with destroyed trucks and tankers, Newsweek explains.

The same applies to the second supply artery, which Russia uses to connect its territory with the occupied Crimea and its southern positions in Ukraine. Moscow renamed the mentioned highway R-280 connecting Rostov-on-Don with Crimea via occupied Mariupol, Berdyansk and Melitopol to “Novorusko”, Ukrainians to “Highway of Death”.

“Our drones attack Russian trucks and tanks not only on the highway, but also hunt those that try to slip on unpaved and dirt roads,” said the Ukrainian 412th Nemesis Brigade.

British intelligence suggests that almost half a million Russian soldiers have been killed since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022. There is growing evidence that the Russian military is returning soldiers with severe injuries to the front due to personnel problems, including men with severe head injuries, damaged vision, broken bones and medically declared unfit to fight.

Analyst Dmitry Kuznets of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said budget spending reports show Russia has recruited 30,000 to 40,000 professional soldiers a month in the past two years, but that recruitment is becoming increasingly expensive and the number of men willing to go to war for money is shrinking. Then he is missing from the front.

The Russian president is still keeping the “war going”. According to Newsweek, the question is whether this proves his “victorious power” or his inability to end the war.