Where are we on the sixth day?

It is quite something what happened over the past six days, on the ground in Ukraine and in pretty much most of the world which is now coming together to support the embattled nation. At the same time there’s been a deep dive in analysis which in particular includes the voice of the ‘I told you so’ people. There are many, but you should read Fiona Hill - historian, Russia expert and former White House staffer - in her interview with Politico, here. In summary she is basically saying that we are already in WWIII and that most of the world’s nations conveniently stuck their collective heads in the sand while Putin rolled out his war of aggression over the past two decades. It is a deeply sobering read.

The Ukrainians are desperate for support: NATO, no-fly zones, EU membership in particular, all to forestall the increasingly bloody invasion. The spectre of a nuclear war will prevent any allied action in the air or on the ground, an EU membership if that is even feasible on short notice can only help on the economic and humanitarian side and will not help stop the impending carnage. On the contrary, the more international support and the stronger Ukrainian resistance, it will all lead to deep frustration on Putin’s side and result in far more lethal attacks where in particular civilians will suffer. Note that Russia has trained for this in Syria which they turned into a slaughterhouse only a few years ago. They have done this before without compunction. There too, the world stood by and watched events unfold.

So, it comes down to the Ukrainian people to fight this. If you want a measure of the resolve, check how unarmed citizens are stopping Russian troop movements, lots of videos on Twitter and other news sites. But if you really want to understand what resolve means, watch ‘Winter on Fire’ on Netflix, which I did last night. This is about the 2013-14 protests that resulted in the ouster of pro-Russian Ukrainian president Yanukovych. It is not an easy thing to take in given the horrific and senseless violence unleashed on unarmed citizens, but it gives you a very good indication of the incredible determination of ordinary Ukrainians. It is also a solid primer of how we got to this point and how eights years of phenomenal and hard-fought progress are being destroyed right in front of our eyes, trailer here:

That’s it for today. I will try and bring regular updates and thoughts in the days and weeks ahead. Thanks for all the visits, Sunday’s post ‘Vancouver supports Ukraine’ got a record number of visitors so thanks for sharing. Feel free to subscribe, like, comment or make suggestions. This is a work in progress.

Photo: Yaryna Arieva and Sviatoslav Fursin were recently married and have now joined the Ukrainian resistance to fight for their country.