Georgia’s lessons for Ukraine

When contemplating various scenarios for how the conflict with Russia might end, Ukraine’s leaders can take clear lessons from Moscow’s brutal military campaign against another one-time Soviet state, Georgia.

Putin’s Potemkin state

Russia’s imperial ambitions have always dwarfed its backward economy and blinkered political hierarchy, and just as the Romanov and Soviet regimes collapsed under the strain, so Putin’s failed war on Ukraine threatens to bring the pariah nation to its knees once again.

Atrocities not tragedies

Russia launched an unprovoked attack against Ukraine and its forces continue to commit atrocities against a people it wishes to eradicate from history. Russia bears complete responsibility for these crimes and its dictator, and western apologists, should not evade moral responsibility behind the empty label of “tragedy.”

Civil defence to the rescue in Ukraine

The Russian aggressors have killed, injured, raped and robbed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, displaced millions of civilians and leveled whole towns but Ukraine’s hard working civil defence has helped its armed forces save the nation from total destruction.

The hangover

Three months after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny, in which the former Putin ally marched towards Moscow with thousands of his brutal, ramshackle troops, the mercenary leader lies cold in his grave but Putin’s grip on power has also been severely shaken.

Taking back the Black Sea

Ukraine has targeted Russia’s assets in the Black Sea and Crimea in recent months, including warships, bases, air defence systems and the Kerch bridge which connects Crimea to mainland Russia. Stepping up this pressure with new weapons will help bring Russia to its knees.

Stand with Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has addressed the United Nations General Assembly in person for the first time since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of his country in February 2022. Here is his speech in full, calling for the world to stand up to Russia’s unprovoked criminal aggression.

Homelands – A personal history of Europe

Europe made great progress towards becoming a “whole and free” continent during the 35 years after the collapse of Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine offers another inflection point. In his new book, Timothy Garten Ash argues that a Ukraine victory would offer the opportunity to renew efforts to create a “whole and free” Europe.

Strike back!

The West has been reluctant to give Ukraine long range weapons to strike back against the Russian invaders lest the conflict spread, but giving Ukraine longer range missiles would do much to turn the tide of the war against the aggressors.

Why New Zealand must help Ukraine

ASEAN countries have hesitated to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or help Ukraine defeat the aggressors, but it’s in the interest of every state – not least New Zealand – to support the international order, defeat Russia and deter China from similar imperialist adventurism.

Ukraine’s future lies in NATO

Although Vladimir Putin strives to reabsorb Ukraine into a resurgent Russian empire, Ukraine’s future lies in being another strong democracy in a united and resolute NATO.

Ukraine’s cardboard airforce

Australia has refused to send surplus F18 fighters to help Ukraine, but it has supplied low-cost cardboard drones to successfully attack enemy targets in Russia.