Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has now lasted longer than the disastrously unsuccessful war fought by Imperial Russia and Tsar Nicholas II from 1914-1917. By the numbers, World War I started on Jul. 28 1914 and ended on Nov. 11 1918, with hostilities lasting 1,567 days. By the time of the formal end of fighting, revolution had overthrown the Romanov regime and Red agents had shot dead Tsar Nicholas II and his family in a Yekaterinburg basement, because the new government in Moscow saw the royals as a threat to Communist rule of Russia.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Modern Russia’s thus-far failed attempt to implement regime change in Ukraine and return the former Soviet republic to Moscow rule, by war and invasion, was launched on Feb. 24 2022 and, by Thursday, had lasted one day more (1,568 days), than the entirety of World War I. Butcher’s bill – World War I or Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine, which war was worse? The most important difference between the two wars is that, for Russia, World War I was a total war with full mobilization affecting practically every facet of the country, with the national leadership totally behind the war effort. During that war, a major alliance of Western states supported Russia. Russia’s (second) invasion of Ukraine is for Russia a war affecting different parts of the country in different ways, with the national leadership juggling the conflicting goals of mobilizing enough men and resources to defeat Ukraine and its allies, while avoiding imposing the shock and sacrifices of a full-scale mobilized war effort on Russian society. Aside from North Korea and to a lesser extent Iran, Russia has no allies supporting its attempt to take over Ukraine.