Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Wednesday, August 24th. I'm Nyla Boudou. Here's

what you need to know today. A former police officer admits falsifying the search warrant

that led to Breonna Taylor's death. Plus, student loan debt by the numbers. But first,

the outlook for the Russia Ukraine war at six months. That's today's one big thing.

Today is the 31st anniversary of Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union. And it also

marks exactly six months since Russia's invasion began. Tens of thousands of lives have been lost,

millions of people have been displaced. And that's why today, instead of a parade,

Central Kiev is decorated with the husks of burned out Russian armored vehicles. But President

Vladimir Zelensky yesterday warned the world against war fatigue and said he would not allow the

conflict to freeze in its current state with Russia occupying one-fifth of Ukraine. Russian

President Vladimir Putin seems equally intent on pushing ahead. Axios' world editor, Dave

Lawler, joined me last night to share what that means for these countries and for the rest of the

world. Hey, Dave. Hi, Noah. Dave, where are we at right now? Because six months in,

it seems like we're much farther from an end to this war than we were at the beginning.

Yeah, Noah. So I've been thinking about the early days of the war, right? When we thought

any day that Kiev could fall that Russia was really closing in on the city. And then we'd see a

video of Zelensky and think, okay, he's still alive. You know, this was the early phase of the war,

but Russia was unsuccessful there. They didn't take Kiev. They pulled back. And we ended up in this

kind of grinding war of attrition in the east of the country, which is still going on,

but now the focal point is also moving to the south. That's where Russia has had some success in

occupying quite a bit of territory. And we think Ukraine might be gearing up for a counter-attack

there. And so when I said at the beginning that Russia occupies one-fifth of Ukraine,

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