Longer than WWI

The Herald reports:

The war in Ukraine has often been compared to World War I for its brutal infantry assaults and heavy casualties. Yet the idea that it could, by any measure, surpass a conflict so long and bloody that French soldiers hoped it would be “the last of the last” once seemed unthinkable.

That is just what happened on Thursday. The war in Ukraine – which reached 1569 days, or more than four years and three months – has now outlasted World War I.

When President Vladimir Putin of Russia sent his troops into Ukraine in February 2022, he believed the country would fall within days. After Ukraine pushed the Russians back and the conflict settled into a war of attrition, even many of those fighting could not imagine it would last this long.

It is incredible that the war has gone on for so long – and a huge tribute to the brave Ukranians who are fighting to stop their country becoming a slave state of Russia.

It has also lasted longer than the Korean War and the American Civil War.

Incidentally the two shortest known wars were the US invasion of Venezuela which lasted 148 minutes and the 1896 war between the UK and Zanzibar which lasted 38 minutes and saw 500 casualties to Zanzibar and 1 to the UK.