letter from Ukraine
February marked four years since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and 12 years since the Russo-Ukrainian War began with the invasion and annexation of Crimea. With so many other things going on in the world, an easily bored news cycle that eagerly moves on to the “next thing”, and limited attention spans, it can be far too easy for those of us in the UK to forget the significance and severity of what is happening, and I fear at times that its relevance is not felt nor its relationship to other conflicts grasped.
The horrors of World War Two serve as a helpful benchmark by which to consider what is happening in Ukraine. It is the most brutal war in Europe since then by total deaths, military casualties, urban destruction, confirmed civilian deaths and general intensity. It is the largest inter-state European conflict since World War Two, and the most strategically important.
Although managed relatively well, the resulting refugee crisis is the most significant in Europe in 80 years, by the total number of those displaced (including internal displacement), scale of displacement and speed of displacement.
