Darkness and light

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin of Russia represent the best and worst of political leadership, appealing to hope and fear respectively, but both appeal to national sentiments to galvanise support in their respective countries.

Rebuilding a united Ukraine

Russia’s savage invasion aimed to obliterate Ukraine and its people, but has only united them in the desire to defend and rebuild their proud but sorely damaged country.

All at sea

Kyiv has undermined Russia’s naval dominance of the Black Sea by demonstrating innovation and initiative through the use of missiles and drones, leaving Russia’s few remaining warships skulking in port or lobbing missiles at civilians far from the conflict zone.

Wartime trauma in Ukraine

The mental anguish inflicted on the people of Ukraine by the Russian invasion will linger long after the invaders are driven from the battlefield.

How Ukraine won the war of words

Russia’s well funded army of internet propagandists have laboured to undermine Western democratic cohesion for years, but wit, intelligence and agility have allowed Ukraine to triumph against their lumpen foe on the internet and social media as well as on the battlefield.

Russia’s grade Z performance in Ukraine

When Russia’s ramshackle armies trundled into Ukraine a year ago, very few gave the defenders a chance and Western support was lukewarm, but the grit, wit and defiance of a nation threatened with extinction at the hands of a murderous tyrant has turned the tables in spectacular style.

Time is the other enemy

The inexorable passage of time is war’s most inflexible and how Ukraine and Russia’s clocks tick down in terms of men, morale and material will decide who wins this war.

“We’re fighting this war for you”

‘If Putin is allowed to win, the face and deterrence value of collective security on the international rules-based systems will be fatally wounded,’ Kyiv’s ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, tells The Strategist.

How Ukrainian brains beat Russian brawn

Western armies can look to Ukraine for an example of how to integrate technologies and weapons to remain agile and adaptable while the blundering Russian behemoth shows the dangers of corruption, incompetence and poor command and control.

Russia skulks into the shadows

Putin invaded Ukraine a year ago to eradicate it from the map and restore his nation’s international prestige, but after 12 months of shame and humiliation he may only have ensured Russia’s eclipse, and perhaps implosion.

Champion of the world

Everything that Vladimir Putin is not, President Zelensky’s global reputation as a contemporary hero rests on his personal courage and his ability to articulate an endlessly inspiring message of resistance and dignity in the face of the brutal Russian invasion.

A year of despair and defiance

Russian President Putin thought he would overrun Ukraine in a few days. As the war raging for the last 12 months has proved, these military volunteers and their fellow Ukrainians ‘had other ideas.’