...in the game of who will die first

Topographical plain. Pretty flat.

A big chunk of formerly eastern ukraine is now russian. There's a pretty wide landmass connecting Russia to Crimea, which is still under russian control. But there's no elections in ukraine anymore, so for the Kiev regime it'd be ideal to pretend there's a war at least 10 more years. Counteroffensive will push back ze ruskies any day now...

Most of the young fighting age men in Ukraine have already died and it's army now is mostly old men and boys.

A lot have fled west actually and good for them - people should not participate in government wars. That's the dumbest thing a free man can do.