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The geography of the war has changed. Once, the war in Ukraine was measured in miles of trenches, destroyed towns, and incremental advances across the Donbas steppe. Over the past two years, however, the conflict has expanded both vertically and territorially, carried not only by missiles and aircraft but also by relatively inexpensive drones assembled in workshops across Ukraine. The battlefield no longer ends at the front line. It now stretches hundreds—and sometimes thousands—of kilometers into Russian territory, reaching oil depots, military plants, logistics hubs, and even Moscow itself.

The war in Ukraine, which is Europe’s largest land war since 1945, has entered the peculiar phase familiar to historians and unbearable to those living through it — the phase in which catastrophe becomes routine. Loud air raid sirens still interrupt dinners in Kyiv. Young men still disappear into the trench lines of Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia. Russian drones still arrive nightly, buzzing in the dark like giant mechanical mosquitoes. As the rumble draws nearer, exhausted people rise from their beds and head into the narrow corridors of their apartments or into the basements of their houses. It happens night after night, year after year, while outside the region, the war increasingly competes with other crises for attention, just becoming a part of the atmospheric background of modern life.

In October 2025, U.S. Department of Homeland Security reported on its official website that more than 2 million undocumented immigrants had already left the United States — including 1.6 million who voluntarily self-deported and more than 527,000 who were forcefully deported. “This is just the beginning,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin proudly stated.

During my trip across Europe a week ago, I spoke with people from different countries — ordinary men and women I met along the way. I asked each of them whether they feel safe in their country today and whether they expect a war.

On August 15, after his meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump said it had been “a great and very successful day in Alaska.” In phone calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European leaders, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Trump added that his talks with Putin had gone “very well.” He later wrote: “It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a peace agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere ceasefire agreement, which oftentimes does not hold up.”

In early March, 2025 Reuters reported that the administration of Donald Trump was planning to deprive about 240,000 Ukrainian refugees of their legal status by terminating humanitarian programs. According to the Reuters sources, the decision was expected in April. In response, White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt dismissed the report on X, calling it “more fake news” and stating, “No decision has been made at this time.” Meanwhile, the Trump administration has already begun revoking parole status for over 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, who had been living in the U.S. under temporary humanitarian programs. The administration said cases would be reviewed on “a case-by-case basis.”