After crossing with his army into Asia, Alexander the Great stopped at Gordium (in modern-day Turkey).
asserted
Great → cross → Turkey
He approached the famous Gordian knot — a tangled mass of bark tying an ox cart to a pole, so intricate and tight that no one could unravel it.
uncertain
one → approach → it
When told that anyone who could untie the mess would rule all of Asia, Alexander simply pulled out his sword and cut through it — solving the problem and fulfilling the prophecy.
uncertain
Alexander → tell → prophecy
The Ukraine war may be our Gordian knot, but — in our current nuclear age — it is dangerous to cut rather than unravel it.
uncertain
it → cut → it
No one knows exactly how many people have been killed in the Ukraine war, which has now lasted four years and eight months — longer than World War II in the Pacific, the American Civil War, or World War I.
asserted
which → know → Pacific
Estimates of the human toll vary widely, since it is in the interest of both sides to exaggerate the losses of the enemy while underreporting their own casualties.
asserted
it → vary → casualties
Nonetheless, most sources agree that more than half a million have died.
asserted
million → agree → ?
Other estimates put the total fatalities closer to 1 million.
asserted
estimates → put → million
At least another million and a half have been wounded or are missing.
asserted
million → wound → ?
On average, well over 1,500 Ukrainians and Russians are being killed or wounded each day.
asserted
Ukrainians → kill → ?
Nightmarish
To outside observers, the war appears different from most other current armed conflicts, in which religion or ethnicity is the cause, or at least the force multiplier, of the conflict.
asserted
religion → appear → conflict
Despite Ukrainian political independence, both sides are ethnically similar and — when it comes to almost half of Ukraine’s prewar population — linguistically identical.
asserted
it → come → population
They fought alongside each other in World War II and often shared a common history.
asserted
They → fight → history
In February 2022, Vladimir Putin planned to decapitate Ukraine with a lightning strike on Kyiv, thereby bringing the entire country within days into his envisioned new Russian empire.
asserted
Putin → plan → empire
That operation, reminiscent of the “Thunder Runs” to capture Baghdad in 2003 with a shock-and-awe wave, utterly failed in the face of remarkable Ukrainian courage and savvy.
asserted
Runs → capture → courage
What followed, however, has become even more nightmarish than the death cauldrons at Verdun or Stalingrad.
asserted
followed → follow → Verdun
Ukraine’s economy is ruined.
asserted
economy → ruin → ?
A fourth of the population has been displaced.
asserted
fourth → displace → population
Perhaps 15% hass fled abroad.
asserted
% → flee → ?
The Volodymyr Zelensky’s government relies on Western aid and the heroism of its troops for survival.
asserted
government → rely → survival
The latter have established a nearly impenetrable line of defense in the contested Donetsk Oblast, one of the richest and most urbanized regions of Ukraine.
asserted
latter → establish → Ukraine
If the Russians were to break through that line, there would be little left to stop them from marching on Kyiv, and thus little to prevent the collapse of Ukraine’s entire resistance.
asserted
Russians → break → resistance
Yet for now, the Russians, in tragically ironic fashion, are playing the role of the trapped German aggressors at Stalingrad: a hemorrhaging army that can no longer advance and won’t retreat.
asserted
that → play → Stalingrad
But as we approach the end of the fifth year of this insane war in late 2026, the Ukrainians — now with roughly one-fifth of Russia’s population, one-twelfth of its GDP, and one-twenty-eighth of its area — are starting to run out of men, money and support.
asserted
Ukrainians → approach → men
Ukraine’s last chance of salvation is to keep sending its vast drone fleet — brilliantly created all but ex nihilo — against Russian industrial targets, especially fuel refineries.
asserted
chance → keep → targets
Russian strategy, by contrast, aims at hitting more civilian targets in Ukraine to kill enough noncombatants to demoralize the population.
asserted
strategy → aim → population
The longer the war drags on, the more Russia — its military humiliated, its oil-exporting economy under strain, its losses staggering — grows desperate and dangerous, as its image as a major power erodes further.
asserted
image → drag → power
As a result, Russia hopes to stop European aid to Ukraine by quietly sending “mysterious” drones over European nations — nations Putin despises for their humanitarian affectations and military weakness.
asserted
Putin → hop → affectations
The Russians seek to counter American aid through a renewed partnership with America’s chief rival, China; by stealthily aiding Iran with intelligence, satellite reconnaissance and smuggled weapons; by hoping that soaring global fuel costs will demoralize the American public on the eve of the midterms; and by making wild threats of nuclear and conventional attacks against the entire NATO alliance.
asserted
costs → seek → alliance
The war has certainly further deepened the long-standing divisions between the United States and Europe, which transcend Donald Trump’s occasional furor at Europe and Europe’s own bouts of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
asserted
which → deepen → Syndrome
The United States is seething at European calls for additional transatlantic solidarity.
asserted
States → seethe → solidarity
The United States US has already provided Ukraine with well over $100 billion in total logistics, weaponry, reconnaissance and economic aid to prevent Russians from pouring into European countries, but such help has not been matched by the Europeans when it comes to stopping a nuclear Iran.
asserted
it → provide → Iran
For decades, European leaders have warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose an existential danger.
asserted
Iran → warn → danger
But European denial of dual-use NATO bases to the American military, the prohibition on even flying Middle East-bound US military or logistical aircraft over several European nations, and the constant rhetorical attacks on the American military effort to stop an Iranian bomb are all starting to fragment the alliance’s support for Ukraine.
asserted
denial → fly → Ukraine
Europe sees the future of the West as hinging on stopping Russian aggression.
asserted
Europe → see → aggression
The United States may agree but sees an unhinged nuclear Iran as an even greater danger.
uncertain
States → agree → danger
Europe is peeved that Trump is ending fuel sanctions against Russia to lower sky-high global diesel prices.
asserted
Trump → peeve → prices
America is even angrier that green and vehemently anti-Russian Europe has been the chief buyer of Russian natural gas since the war began.
asserted
war → begin → gas
And on and on the acrimony goes.
asserted
acrimony → go → ?
It does not help that the framing of the war as European democracy against Russian totalitarian aggression is undermined somewhat by the desperate Zelensky government’s banning of allegedly pro-Russian political parties, restrictions on opposition media and suspension of scheduled elections.
uncertain
framing → help → elections
…and 40 more, not listed.
The Aporia
