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.

But Slate's 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.

Mm-hmm.

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 a stalemate isn't an ending.

It's just a steady state.

You're thinking of, say, a stalemate in chess.

And since chess players are presumably rational people, when they hit a 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 going on in Ukraine,

it feels like a geopolitical game of mercy.

Do you feel like there's a timetable here?

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