Russia is keeping those fighter jets grounded for now and is attacking with cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as drones. Ukraine shoots most of these down with its air defense missiles. For Ukraine, the problem is it's running low on these missiles. If it runs out, then Russia could unleash its fighting planes.

• Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker told CNBC he believes American and EU aid packages for Ukraine will be approved come January, saying he believed this funding would tide Ukraine over for another year, militarily.
• Russian Communist supporters hold flags including one of the Soviet Union, as they take part in a rally next to the Karl Marx monument, marking the "Defender of the Fatherland Day," the former "Day of the Soviet Army", in downtown Moscow on Feb. 23.
• A raft of Western sanctions is squeezing the Russian economy, undermining Moscows power and influence on an international level but Putin himself seems unflinching.
• He judges that continuing the war may be a greater threat to his leadership than the humiliation of ending it.
• "You only have to look at the struggle to get the oil embargo," says Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, referring to the tortured weeks of negotiation that resulted in this week's partial EU embargo on Russian oil.
• Then, only then did the German people find out that the war was lost because Ludendorff had set up a Ministry of Information saying, Were gonna win, were doing great.

He insisted after his visit that Ukraine would not cede any of the occupied territories in the south of the country to Russia, which occupies the bulk of the countrys coastal areas. Johnson, writing in the Sunday Times, said the supply of weapons had to continue, and that it would be necessary to preserve the viability of the Ukrainian state by providing financial support to pay wages, run schools, deliver aid and begin reconstruction. Ukrainian forces have likely suffered desertions in recent weeks. However, Russian morale highly likely remains especially troubled.

When will the war in Ukraine end?

The EU's decision to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova is more than just symbolic. It implicitly means continued backing for Kyiv, as a future in the EU for Ukraine would be impossible with a full-blown victory for Russia. The US defence aid package is held hostage by what President Biden rightly labelled "petty politics" in Washington. And the future of the EU's economic aid is seemingly dependent on Hungary's incongruous stance.