On 24 February 2025, thousands of Ukrainians and their families and friends crowded into London’s Trafalgar Square for an evening of prayers and protest, speeches and music, marking three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Particular excitement was caused by the appearance of the 'Iron General', the popular former commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhnyi, who took up a new post as ambassador to the United Kingdom last year. But the mood was inescapably sober, and reflected a new sentiment absent from previous gatherings: betrayal.
Reaction to the US election
I was in Ukraine on the eve of the US presidential elections. Regardless of disagreement with Harris’s more progressivist agenda, there was little question among those I spoke with that the Trump alternative seemed less favourable to the interests of Ukrainian national sovereignty and territorial integrity. The decisive Trump victory the next day however saw ever-hopeful Ukrainians adapt to the emotional necessity of the new reality with surprising enthusiasm.
