A war 80 years ago is now repeating, but the country being invaded is different. It is a situation too similar to what happened in the past. For the past month, the Russians have been invading Ukraine, and it looks like they have stumbled face-first into failure.

On Nov. 24, Russian forces entered Ukrainian land claiming that they were trying to liberate the Ukraine separatist states Donetsk and Luhansk, but others believe that the Russian government wants to control the government of Ukraine. It is believed that Russia has about 250,000 troops on the offensive while Ukraine has 200,000 soldiers, 100,000 paramilitaries, and 20,000 foreign volunteers in its defense.  Many people and analysts believed that there was no way that the Ukrainians could survive let alone force a stalemate, with thousands dead due to how brutal the Russians have carried out the war. Right now Russia has taken most of the Eastern parts of Ukraine and is now trying to take the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv.

With the publicized failure of the Russian army and air force, it has brought a new light on the feared Russian military showing how myths can fail to show up when facing actual opposition, but this has a sense of Deja vu since the USSR’s military also failed spectacularly when facing another nation that they were supposed to crush. In 1940 after taking Eastern Poland the USSR invaded the nation of Finland hoping to take some territory and set up a puppet government. This plan failed due to stiff resistance from the Finnish with many legends being born from the conflict like the Finnish framer turned deadliest sniper in history Simo Hayha with 500 confirmed kills, and Russian incompetence. This seems to be repeating now with the complete failure of the Russian armed forces and Ukrainian legends being born like the famous Ghost of Kyiv.

The failures that we have seen have made the west reconsider the way they perceive the Russian army and their fear of them. As the battle for Kyiv still rages the Ukrainian people have shown extreme bravery and strength that has shocked not only the Russian government but also the west.