If you’ve looked in the news at any point recently, you’ve most likely seen information about the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Starting on Feb. 24, this invasion has gone on for weeks now, coming up on a whole month.

Russia’s decision to go through with the invasion was surprising, even for the people on the front lines. Reports say that they had been selling excess gas and rations leading up to the day of the invasion because they had thought the patrols were just military exercises. That is one of the factors which led to the invasion taking a longer time than expected by the Russian leaders.

Reportedly, Putin had believed it would only take around three days to take control of Ukraine, Kyiv specifically, overtaking it before outside forces could mobilize any significant action against them. However, Ukraine did not fall in three days. As of the writing of this story, Ukraine has been holding out against the much larger country for 24 days instead.

Putin had called for the Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their arms before the full invasion began, calling for them to accept the Russian invasion with open arms. But the Ukranians did no such thing. In fact, the Russian invasion has only strengthened the patriotism of Ukraine’s people, and their resistance efforts against the Russians.

Forces had begun to assemble in early February, but only began to gather earnestly after Feb. 20. If reports are to be believed, then Russia specifically invaded Ukraine after the 20th to avoid aligning with the Olympics taking place in China. However, regardless of if the report is correct or not, it was a mistake for the Russians to wait. Around the time they began to invade, the snow and frost was melting in Ukraine. This saturated the soil significantly, making it muddy. For humans, muddy soil isn’t much of an issue. But for extremely heavy Russian tanks? Many of these weapons have been stranded in the mud of the Ukrainian land and have had to be abandoned, where Ukrainian citizens can come along and take them.

This means that in order to avoid getting stuck in the mud, tanks need to travel on the roads, which makes them easy targets for the many pieces of weaponry the Ukrainians have prepared and the weaponry they have been provided by Western powers who oppose the Russian invasion.

The western powers in question are the majority of the world’s countries. These countries have also applied sanctions to Russian goods and services, massively devaluing the Russian ruble. The full effect of these sanctions may not come into effect immediately, but Russia’s economy is already suffering, causing unrest in its citizens. Reportedly, there have been many protests across Russia against this invasion, and it has led to thousands of arrests.

Propaganda in Russia is reportedly in full swing, trying to keep support on the side of the Russians. The most significant piece of propaganda put out by the Russians is that they’re attempting to free the Ukranians from a Neo Nazi, Western power-loving leadership. This is, of course, incorrect. But with media increasingly being cut off in favor of purely pro-Russian programming, older citizens in particular are likely to be tricked by the propaganda.

Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to stop the invasion are underway, so perhaps there’s an end in sight to this conflict. But even if Russia were to pull out of Ukraine and even apologize, it’s unlikely that Russia will stop feeling the consequences of their invasion for years to come. Many western companies, such as McDonalds, have ceased working in Russia, and Russia threatening to take their assets that are in Russia means that these companies will not reenter Russia anytime soon. Investors will be much less interested in providing funding to any Russian companies as well. The value of the ruble is not likely to increase anytime soon either, and many Russian soldiers have died already, a good portion of them young and inexperienced.

The future of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is unclear, but we can hope that Ukraine will be able to endure Russia’s invasion and keep its freedom.