Russian President Vladimir Putin couldn’t even stage a full Victory Day parade in Moscow. His banks teeter, and his military is being slaughtered in a kill zone created by Ukrainian technology that is patrolled by drones. China refuses to build a giant natural gas pipeline from Russia, but lends it money to continue a war it cannot win, and which can only be repaid by ceding a gigantic part of China that is currently Russia’s.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. US President Donald Trump’s “deal-plomacy” doesn’t work, and he’s now distracted by his war in Iran. Europe is a committee, not a country, that bickers and dithers as Ukrainians die. Thus, Ukrainians have taken control over their fate, overcoming Russia’s manpower advantage with sheer brainpower. Ukrainians have reinvented war and built Europe’s largest military-industrial complex that does business all over the world. Denied permission to use long-range missiles by squeamish “allies,” Kyiv now makes its own and, in 2025 and 2026, has taken the war to Russia itself. Said one official: “Once we get the full capacity [of weaponry], we won’t have to listen to Trump or anybody else.” Who can blame Ukraine for wanting full strategic independence? After all, it’s smarter than all of its allies or enemies. It has stared down Russia and will defend Europe for some time to come. Europeans pay for Ukraine’s American-made weapons, but the continent has yet to militarize itself. NATO is a dream, not an aligned force to be counted on, and the US aims to pull out of Europe altogether.