Ukraine’s gift for rising to challenges in wartime need to be reinforced by reforms to bear fruit in peace time
—a Persian term introduced by way of the Tatars of Crimea which enriches the architectural notion of a square with the connotations of a communal meeting place. Specifically, it became Maidan Nezalezhnosti: Independence Square.
Ukraine’s gift for rising to challenges in its own way is not without downsides. On neither of the occasions when the people got rid of Mr Yanukovych did they put in place the sort of reform needed to curb the politically powerful oligarchs and pervasively corrupt bureaucracy that made such rulers possible. Coming together only when needs must means letting a lot of other things slide with the oft repeated phrase“it will have to sort itself out”.
Such tales resonate because, for most of Ukraine’s history, the state has been something foreign for the people to resist, ignore and get by without. When their country acquired a state of its own in 1991, those who ran it were as unscrupulous and divorced from the people as the foreign rulers had been, providing little reason for a change in attitude. Ukrainians continue to have low expectations of the state and rely instead on informal networks of friends, neighbours and relatives.
The war is laying all thought of division to rest: as Sergei Rakhmanin, a journalist and politician, wrote recently, it “has stitched us together without any anaesthetic”. Russian-speakers, Jews, Crimean Tatars and Ukrainian-speakers are fighting as one for survival and their right to be who they want to be on their own land. It is Russian speakers in the south and east who, stalwart in resistance, are paying the heaviest price.
Volodymyr Zelensky, a television comedian before he was elected president in 2018, fits the same “you do what you can” picture. “The first thing that I understood,” he said in a recent interview with, was “that we the people have agency. People are leaders and political leaders are losers, some of them.” As with everyone else, his wartime role has been to do what he does best—communicate with his people and with the world.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
White House considering to send Biden or US official to Kyiv to meet ZelenskyTHE WHITE HOUSE is considering sending Joe Biden or another US official to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a report has claimed.
Read more »
Ukraine: Moscow threatens to bomb ZelenskyThe Russian military has threatened to strike Ukraine's command centres in the capital Kyiv if Ukrainian troops continue to attack Russian territory
Read more »
Andriy Zagorodnyuk explains why Russia’s army is failing in UkraineRussia has one the largest military budgets in the world. But the “dysfunctionality” of its system “has clearly led to the deterioration of military capabilities”, writes Ukraine’s former defence minister
Read more »
Russia’s own state media ‘proves it is committing war crimes in Ukraine’President Voldomyr Zelensky has called for Nuremberg-style hearings
Read more »
Ukraine war: Russia admits Black Sea Fleet flagship is in flames as Ukraine claims missile attackRussia says the missile cruiser was badly damaged after fire sparked ammunition to detonate, but it did not give details on the cause of the fire.
Read more »
Putin ally detained by Kyiv offered to exchange for ‘boys and girls in Russian captivity’UKRAINE said it has arrested fugitive pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, seen as President Vladimir Putin's closest ally in the country, and in a recent speech President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated he is willing to exchange the captured politicians for children seized by Russians.
Read more »