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When each day of war in Ukraine brings some fresh horror, pictures of a shopping mall

in Kiev, reduced to ruins, or video of a children's hospital, a maternity ward, destroyed

in a targeted attack, it can be difficult to imagine this violence could become routine.

And Slates Fred Kaplan says that's probably what's about to happen. I keep hearing this

same word again and again when I read about the war in Ukraine, the word is stalemate,

like the war could be a stalemate. I'm kind of curious what that would mean.

Well, it just means that each side keeps slogging each other, but neither makes any real progress

toward what they're trying to accomplish.

So stalemate isn't an ending. It's just a steady state.

You're thinking of stalemate in chess. And since chess players are presumably rational

people, when they hit a stalemate, they realize, well, we might as well just call it a tie

and leave because we're just wasting our time. In war, however, there is always the hope,

especially the side that started the war, that maybe something will happen that will

strengthen our position. And we will get more of our demands. And that seems to be what

Vladimir Putin is doing right now.

Fred covers national security for Slate. He says, when he looks at pictures of what's

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