Ukraine's black earth still runs red after three years of war

Reporter’s Notebook: The Jerusalem Post spent four days in Ukraine leading up to the third anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

By ALEX WINSTON FEBRUARY 24, 2025 15:23 Updated: FEBRUARY 24, 2025 15:31

The unofficial memorial to fallen soldiers in Kyiv’s Independence Square is a sea of blue and yellow flags and military portraits of Ukraine's fallen soldiers. (photo credit: ALEX WINSTON)

Ukraine's soil, among the most fertile soils in the world, is known as black earth. For centuries, farming and agriculture have supported empires, serfs, nationalists, and communists. For three years now, Ukraine's black earth has run red with the blood of the fallen in the Ukraine-Russia War. 

The Jerusalem Post spent time in Kyiv, where temperatures dropped to -14°C in the days leading up to the third anniversary of the invasion. I spoke with government officials, leading businessmen, soldiers, and ordinary Ukrainians.

There is still much damage to the city, and on Saturday night, Kyiv came under the heaviest drone attack of the war. Officials reported that 267 drones were launched. Sirens blared as the flowing comets of the Ukrainian defenses lit up the night sky.

When Ukraine co-hosted the Euro 2012 soccer tournament with Poland, arguably the second most prestigious international tournament in the sport, it seemed the country was on the cusp of something. Looking westward, Ukraine was embracing the 21st century with optimism. However, Russia was still by far its largest trade partner.

The ties that bound the two countries were shattered when President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin declared a “special military operation” to ensure the “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, the Russian army crossed the border, and the Russia-Ukraine war began.

Kyiv still shows many signs of damage as Russian drones attack almost nightly. Three years ago the Russians made it to within a few kilometers of the capital. (credit: ALEX WINSTON)

Of course, the war had really started eight years earlier when Russian forces occupied Crimea without firing a shot. But this was a full-scale invasion of a sovereign nation in 21st-century Europe. Ukraine has since been taken back to a World.

War II-style battlefield—trenches, frontlines, body bags.

There remains immense pride in how Ukraine repelled the initial invasion when Russian forces advanced to within kilometers of Kyiv itself. A counteroffensive has since pushed the war largely to the eastern frontlines in the heavily industrialized Donbas region. President Volodymyr Zelensky has done his best to keep the country from falling apart.

Exhaustion of war

The Ukrainians I spoke with do not speak kindly of the Russians. They remember cruelty and are exhausted by war.

At least 50,000 Ukrainian soldiers are estimated to have been killed, along with the 12,000 civilians. Russia's losses are estimated by the United States at around 700,000 soldiers. 

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At the unofficial memorial to fallen soldiers in Kyiv’s Independence Square, the beating heart of the city that has seen more than one revolution, a sea of blue and yellow flags and military portraits stretches before the towering monument to Ukraine’s 1991 independence.

Two elderly women stood there in the morning cold, speaking quietly as they faced the thousands of young men who once went ice fishing on frozen rivers in February—men who wanted to be scientists or dreamed of following in the footsteps of Ukraine’s three great heavyweight champions: Vitali Klitschko (now Kyiv’s mayor), his younger brother Wladimir, or the current champion Oleksandr Usyk.

In the rural villages of Ukraine, where populations sometimes number in the hundreds, cemeteries are filled with fresh graves of the fallen men of this war.

And the women, too. Thousands have volunteered to defend their homeland, playing a crucial role in Ukraine’s ability to hold out—and hold on. I spent time with the Bucha Volunteers Battalion, known as the Witches of Bucha, a group of women from across the country guarding the skies over the Kyiv suburb that Russian forces occupied in the early weeks of the war. Some of their weapons date back to World War II.

After Ukrainian forces regained Bucha, reports emerged of war crimes committed by the Russian military. Estimates range from scores to several hundred victims, most of them young men.

“The Russians lived in my apartment,” one female soldier told me. “They destroyed so much. I’m just glad they didn’t kill my cat.”

Kyiv is a beautiful city with warm, resilient people. Ukrainians do their best to help whenever they can. But there is an undercurrent of something they can never replace—the lost years of war.

If US President Donald Trump and Putin have their way, the conflict could soon be over. Talks took place last week in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between US and Russian officials, without the Ukrainians invited. Ukraine may lose over 20% of its territory, but Putin will have lost face, both internationally and within Russia, where there is major discontent but no way to show it.

If the war were to stop tomorrow, which side would claim victory?