Russian killing fields near Dobropillia, Ukraine. Why? What for? For whom?

A new poll: 61% of Ukrainians living in Ukraine oppose withdrawing Ukrainian troops from the Donbas and handing the region over to full Russian occupation in exchange for security guarantees from the US and Europe. 35% would agree to such an arrangement, with varying degrees of certainty. (This poll was conducted before the "diesel deal" and Trump's betrayal. And opposition to withdrawing Ukrainian troops has barely changed since the summer. Ukrainians clearly have no illusions about the value of any security guarantees offered in exchange for surrendering their main defensive line against Russia.) Importantly, 66% of Kyiv residents are also firmly opposed, despite all the mass killings and destruction Russia is currently inflicting on their city. Only 10% expect the war to end this year. Meanwhile, 39% believe it will not end until 2028 or even later, and 21% have no definite opinion on the matter. 62% say they are prepared to endure the hardships of war for as long as it takes. Another 21% are prepared to endure them for a few more months or up to six months. In this respect, public attitudes have remained essentially unchanged throughout the second half of 2026, despite all of Russia's atrocities. 92% of Ukrainians believe that Russia's strikes are intended to destroy Ukraine's economy, make life unbearable for its people, and force the country to capitulate. Only 3% believe Russia is merely responding to Ukrainian strikes against it and that Ukraine is provoking Russia. Just 2% believe Russia is targeting only military facilities and is not trying to destroy Ukraine's economy and essential civilian infrastructure. (Well, duh.) 84% fully or somewhat agree that Russia wants to conquer Ukraine and is therefore unwilling to accept any peace settlement under which Ukraine remains a sovereign state with a strong military. Only 20% fully or somewhat agree that the Ukrainian government should be more willing to make concessions in negotiations with Russia. 73% disagree. 78% believe the obstacle to peace is Russia's ambition to conquer Ukraine and its unwillingness to accept a peace in which Ukraine remains a sovereign country with a strong military. Only 12% agree that the obstacle to peace is the Ukrainian government's refusal to make concessions.

I just love this one: "Ukraine, don't antagonize Trump." Listen -- from the very first day of his return to the White House (and even long before that), Ukraine has indulged his every whim and gone along with every one of his insane plans. It has dutifully catered to his grotesque craving for the most nauseating flattery and joined everyone else in massaging his monstrous ego, singing in chorus the praises of his incredible leadership, talent, power, and divine beauty. Ukraine, and Zelensky himself in particular, has turned a blind eye to and endured countless humiliations, insulting antics, idiotic outbursts on Truth Social, and hysterical spectacles like the Oval Office showdown. Ukraine has unfailingly supported 100% of his ridiculous, nonsensical, and downright idiotic imaginary "ceasefires," which Putin couldn't have given less of a damn about. And yet Ukraine had to listen, over and over again, to accusations that it "doesn't want peace," responding to every such outrage with yet more praise for Trump and bending over backward to appease him, desperate not to give him the slightest excuse to accuse it of being "uncooperative." Meanwhile, Putin has spent all this time amusing himself, making a complete fool of Trump in front of the entire world, and openly spitting on every one of his frantic diplomatic maneuvers. We've been living in this madhouse, where night has become day and day has become night, for almost two years now. And what? How's that working out? What has all of this accomplished? More slaps in the face, and ultimately, Donald Trump's complete and final betrayal and his active decision to side with the Russian aggressor. And somehow it's Ukraine that's "antagonizing" someone? At least have the decency to stop hiding behind this laughable victim-blaming and your invented alternate realities, and just come out and say it: "Just fucking die, all of you Ukrainians, so our idol can line his pockets with Kremlin money."

The kindly-looking old man in this photograph was named Matviy Danyliuk. He died long ago, back in 1994. But he lived a very long life, reaching the age of 103. For many years, he lived in a small village in Volyn, Ukraine, where everyone knew and loved him. Among the local men, he was known as an expert fisherman and hunter. He crafted ingenious fishing gear, had a large family, and was a devoutly religious man. And, as his grandchildren recalled, he would sometimes wear a small yellow-and-blue ribbon around his wrist and jokingly greet people with the words "Slava Ukraini!" This greatly alarmed his wife, who was terrified that the Soviet authorities would arrest him. All because, many decades earlier, on January 29-30, 1918, the young military cadet Danyliuk had fought in the Battle of Kruty, near a small railway station east of Kyiv. There, units of the newly proclaimed Ukrainian People's Republic, made up largely of young military cadets, university students, and even schoolboys, clashed in a battle, amid thick fog, with Bolshevik forces advancing on Kyiv from Russia. After the battle, the Reds executed around 30 Ukrainian students who had lost their way in the darkness and fog during the retreat and fallen into enemy hands. According to some accounts, they sang "Ukraine's glory and freedom have not yet perished..." in ragged unison as they were lined up before the firing squad. The Battle of Kruty has since become famous, and the memory of the students who desperately tried to save Kyiv has been widely revived in recent decades. The battle itself has also become the subject of numerous legends. But Matviy Danyliuk survived. He went on to become the last surviving veteran of the Ukrainian People's Republic's army, and the only participant in the Battle of Kruty to live long enough to see Ukraine regain its independence. Unlike many other veterans, he was fortunate enough to escape Soviet repression. And twenty years after he died peacefully in his own bed -- in August 2014, his great-grandson, Volodymyr Ishchuk, was killed in the fighting near Ilovaisk against regular Russian troops who had invaded the Donbas without identifying insignia. In my upcoming book, I devote an entire chapter to a literary reconstruction of the Battle of Kruty, drawing on as many authentic documentary details as possible and telling the story through the eyes of the young cadet Matviy Danyliuk in 1918: how university students and cadets, barely armed and scarcely equipped, fought to save Kyiv and the Ukrainian People's Republic as Lenin's Bolsheviks marched to drown it in blood.