Today marks the 1,000th day since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. Back on Feb. 24, 2022, many inside and outside of Russia expected a quick and overwhelming victory for Russia. But the war has dragged on for almost three years.

Roughly 1 million Russians and Ukrainians have been killed or wounded since the start of the war, according to the Wall Street Journal. The United Nations says at least 11,700 Ukrainian civilians have been killed. Even more Ukrainians are prisoners of war, often suffering torture and starvation. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children have been relocated to Russian reeducation camps in order to “Russify” them and make them loyal to Putin.

Russia itself has suffered even greater losses in ammunition and manpower, with some estimating as many as 200,000 killed and 400,000 wounded. With Western support, Ukraine has proved much more resilient than Putin expected. But weary troops are struggling to hold the line as military aid from Ukraine’s allies dwindles.

In the first year of the war, Ukraine lost the most amount of territory but also reclaimed some land through impressive counteroffensives against its much larger and superior adversary. In 2023, the war nearly came to a stalemate until Russia finally captured the key city of Bakhmut after the longest and bloodiest battle of the war. After this, Ukraine’s ammunition almost ran dry and Russia gained more ground, most notably in its capture of the key city of Avdiivka in February 2024.

On August 7, the war took an unexpected turn when Ukrainian forces humiliated Russia as they advanced into the Kursk region. The Russians had left the area with few defenses, allowing Ukrainians to advance some 10 miles into western Russia, a bigger advance than Russia had made into Ukraine in months. Russia has since recaptured part of the region but has failed to take it back completely.

In recent weeks, Russia has successfully advanced toward the key city of Pokrovsk and gained a notable victory in the devastated town of Vuhledar in October. Last month, Russia achieved its largest monthly net gain since the start of the war.

Today, Putin continues to grind further west, terrorizing and exhausting Ukrainians with thousands of drones and air strikes in an effort to break their will to fight. On Tuesday, Ukraine used missiles from the United States for the first time to strike back at targets inside Russia, after receiving approval from the Biden administration. Future U.S. support is doubtful, however, once Donald Trump returns to the White House.

Trump has pledged to end the war swiftly once he takes office, hinting at an unfavorable deal for Ukraine that hands over certain chunks of territory to Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not keen on such a deal, but said he wants to end the war in 2025 through diplomatic means.

Whether a U.S.-brokered deal will happen remains to be seen, but one thing is sure: Despite tremendous setbacks and heavy Western sanctions, Putin has shown no sign of giving up.

It is this fierce determination to conquer Ukraine that has dramatically accelerated the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Reshaping Europe

“The amount of fear that Russia’s attack has generated among Europeans is deeply significant prophetically,” wrote Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry in his September 2023 article “Russia’s War on Ukraine Is Reshaping Europe.” He showed how Russian aggression has led Europe to take dramatic action, and he pointed to prophecies in Daniel 2 and Revelation 17 that show a unified and militaristic European superpower is about to rise. A year later, the advancement of these prophecies is even more evident.

Military spending in Western and Central Europe is now higher than it was in the last year of the Cold War. Countries feel more pressured than ever to achieve nato’s target of spending at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense.

Poland is the leader in these terms, spending 4.7 percent of its gdp on defense. Poland is also building a costly 400-mile-long “East Shield” defense system along its border with Russia and Belarus.

But Germany is the main power to watch, as prophecy shows it will lead this European power. The country is projected to spend $100 billion in defense this year. It has recently passed a law to recruit more soldiers for its military, and it has even considered reinstating conscription and recruiting foreigners.

Germany is also working to combine its military with other nations’. The Netherlands submitted its entire land force to Germany in March 2023. Later that year, Germany permanently stationed 5,000 soldiers in Lithuania. France, Europe’s only nuclear power, said it is willing to share nuclear bombs with Germany.

Going into next year, we can expect Europe to grow even stronger, especially since Donald Trump has implied the Continent should no longer rely on U.S. support to deter Russia.

Uniting the Kings of the East

Besides bringing Europe closer together, the Ukraine war has accelerated another prophetic trend that the Trumpet has been watching for decades: the formation of a massive Asian power bloc.

China signed a “no limits” partnership with Russia in 2022. Putin has had numerous meetings with Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping in the past year, strengthening the alliance between these two Asian giants. Throughout the war, China has provided military aid to Russia, including more than $100 million worth of drones, $225 million worth of a type of ceramics used in body armor, and large quantities of Chinese-made armored vehicles.

China, along with India, has also helped Russia by buying up its crude oil as Europe’s embargo and the West’s price caps have limited Russia’s crude exports. Russia has circumvented these sanctions by selling oil for a discounted price to Indian and Chinese refiners, who then process and sell it to Europe.

Relations between Russia and North Korea are also strengthening. Since the start of the war, North Korea has sent over 3 million artillery shells to Russia. In June, the two countries signed a landmark defense pact, promising each other military assistance in case of an armed attack. Last month, thousands of North Korean troops started arriving in Eastern Europe to fight alongside Russian forces. The plan is for North Korea to deploy 10,000 troops to assist Russia by the end of this year, with more likely to come next year. This could help Russia with its manpower shortage and allow Putin to continue fighting a prolonged war.

Bible prophecy calls Asian powers like Russia, China, India and North Korea the “kings of the east” (Revelation 16:12). These powers will form an alliance with numbers greater than mankind has ever seen.

Ezekiel 38:2 describes the leader of this Asian power bloc: the “prince of Rosh,” or “prince of Russia.” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has identified Vladimir Putin as this leader. In his 2017 booklet The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia,’ he writes: “Vladimir Putin is one we need to keep a particularly close eye on. His track record, his nationality and his ideology show that he is fulfilling a linchpin Bible prophecy. The time frame of his rule also shows that nobody else could be fulfilling the Ezekiel 38 and 39 prophecy.”

Ezekiel 38:2-5 give names that apply to modern China and India. Verse 6 mentions Gomer, the primary ancestor of several Asian peoples including the Koreans.

Revelation 9:16 gives further insight, saying that “the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand.” That’s 200 million troops. Russia’s population of just over 140 million could never field such a force. This is more evidence that Putin will need populous nations such as China, India, and other Asian nations to join his force.

This is already starting to happen as the result of the Ukraine war. The groundwork is being laid for this Putin-led 200 million-man army.

What’s Next

Prophecy doesn’t tell us whether Russia will completely conquer Ukraine, but it does show that Russia will grow stronger in the long term because of Putin’s prophesied role in Ezekiel 38 and 39. Even if Russia loses this war, Putin will fight larger battles during the third world war.

Russia’s recent threats to use nuclear bombs on powers like the U.S. and other nations supporting Ukraine have led some to wonder if the Russia-Ukraine war could trigger World War iii.

Relying on Bible prophecy, Mr. Flurry has pointed out that although World War iii is coming, another power will start it. In “The Ukraine War Will Not Start World War III!”, he wrote:

Daniel 11:40-41, a prophecy about “the time of the end,” describes a mighty clash: the king of the south, a radical Islamic alliance led by Iran, provoking the king of the north, the 10 European kings led by Germany, into a catastrophic war that destroys Iran and swallows many other Middle Eastern nations. Other prophecies show that this clash will mark the beginning of this European power’s world domination—which will include the destruction of America, Britain and the Jewish state of Israel! (You can read about this in our free book The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy.)

This, according to prophecy, is how World War iii will begin. …

Once that European power has conquered mightily and is bestriding the Middle East, it will then hear troubling “tidings out of the east and out of the north” (verse 44)—that is, from an Asian alliance described in Revelation 16:12 as “the kings of the east.” This power will be led by Russia and, secondarily, by China.

Prophecy warns of catastrophic world war then enveloping these two remaining great powers!

Fortunately, this dark era of wars and suffering will not last long. Mr. Flurry explains in The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia’ that there is tremendous hope ahead:

[T]he Bible also prophesies that at the end of all of these wars, the world is going to see the greatest event ever in the universe: the Second Coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ! …

Vladimir Putin is a sign, literally a SIGN that Jesus Christ is about to return! This is one of the most inspiring messages in the Bible. What we are seeing in Russia ultimately leads to the transition from man ruling man to God ruling man! And it’s almost here!

To learn more about these prophecies in detail, order your free copy of The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia.’