The writer is a historian, philosopher and author
Contrary to the narrative pushed by Russian propaganda, Ukraine has so far been winning the war. Even US President Donald Trump, who in February 2025 lectured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he must cave in to Russian demands because “you don’t have the cards”, has this week declared that “Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN”.
When the conflict began in 2014, Ukraine seemed completely helpless in the face of Russian aggression, and the Russians easily conquered Crimea and other parts of eastern Ukraine. The war entered a more intense phase on February 24 2022, when Russia mounted an all-out assault, aiming to subdue the whole of Ukraine and end its existence as an independent nation.