After months of brutal fighting that has left thousands of civilians and soldiers dead, the war seems to be shifting to a place where Ukraine is now on the counter offensive and Russia is on the retreat. Ukraine pushing the Russians back would normally have been massive news all over the world considering the drastic differences in military power between them. But in the United States, there has been little coverage of the War in Ukraine since the early stages. Why is that the case?

While some could argue that so much has happened in the news since the break out of the war, it could be hard to keep up with global news. But it is a war, shouldn’t that be dominating the news? That is a question that provides two key answers as to why more people are not talking about it.

Reason #1: Many Americans have likely stopped caring about the war, partially because it does not involve them.

This has likely been the leading case for the Russia-Ukraine war, but many people simply just stopped caring because since the beginning, it had little to no impact on everyday Americans. Ukraine and Russia are in Eastern Europe, which is not at all close to the United States. Asking American citizens to keep up with a war in an entirely different hemisphere can be a tall order. But how did that become the case? The best answer to that would probably be the fact that our lives have had no major changes as a result of this war. While millions of Ukrainians have become refugees, the lives of American citizens have remained mainly unaffected. With the rate at which “breaking news” is released to the public, it can be understood why so many people forgot that the war was still going on.

Reason #2: Americans have incredibly short attention spans. 

Though this may be one of the most harsh reasons, it is also one of the sad thruths. The American news cycle changes so much that it can be easy to forget things that were all over the news. Remember when Chris Rock got slapped by Will Smith? Remember the Australian Wildfires of 2020? Remember the Yanney vs Laurel debate? Though these were once dominant in the news, they have become long forgotten by the public simply because of our ever changing news cycle. Many average Americans simply do not have long enough attention spans to keep up with a news story for more than a few weeks at most. In the case of Russia and Ukraine, it was the most prevalent news story in the beginning of March. Since then there are only a few news companies that give updates day-to-day, like the New York Times or the Guardian. 

But now, what exactly has Ukraine done that has changed the course of the war? For starters, Ukraine has retaken many parts of the Northeast region of the country where the majority of the war has been fought. Particularly in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine has taken advantage of Russia’s blaring weaknesses which primarily include leadership. At the beginning of the war, Russian officials believed that it would take three days for the capital city, Kyiv, to fall into Russian hands. However a surprisingly strong defense from Ukraine’s military has kept the Russians at a stand still without many major gains across the territory. With global pressure and a fierce fight back from Ukraine, Russia’s next few moves can and most likely will decide the remainder of the war. 

Even with the war still raging across Ukraine, it is still very important that it is remembered in the United States. Who knows, maybe this article even reminded some readers about the war. Whatever the case may be, the war has taken a drastic turn within the past few weeks and in the United States it was barely announced to citizens. Whether it be because of a lack of caring or too short of an attention span, Ukraine and all its innocent civilians still need help and continuing to spread awareness can be a small yet valuable contribution.