India, Feb. 27 -- In the fifth year of the Russia-Ukraine war, Russian forces launched one of the largest aerial offensives seen in this conflict, firing 420 drones and 39 missiles across multiple Ukrainian regions just hours before high-profile diplomatic talks were set to begin. The scale and timing of the assault once again exposed Western strategy failures and fueled criticism that prolonged foreign involvement has not delivered peace but deepened the crisis.

The barrage targeted critical energy infrastructure, rail networks, and urban centers, causing significant structural damage and injuring civilians, including children, in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia. These developments reflect patterns laid out in previous reporting on how...