With Ukraine stabilizing the front line and striking more and more targets deep inside Russia—while Russia’s spring offensive has hit a wall —perhaps it is true what Col. Nicholson said in The Bridge on the River Kwai : “Suddenly you realize you’re nearer the end than the beginning.” With prospects that the war may be approaching a ceasefire, if only a temporary one, toward the end of this year or in 2027, European policymakers should be clear-eyed that once the fighting stops in Ukraine,