Ukrainians in search of safety: Svitlana and family

Svitlana with her husband and son in The Netherlands.

My name is Svitlana. I’m 40 years old, married, and the mother of a four-year-old son. Until February 2022, I lived a quiet and happy life in Chornobaivka, a village in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine. I owned my own nail studio, had worked as a manicure and pedicure specialist for seventeen years, and held a master’s degree in management. After my maternity leave, I dreamed of working in government. My husband and I were building our future: a beautiful, light-filled home for our family, full of plans and hope.

But everything changed on February 24, 2022.

That morning, the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. In the first few days, we didn’t understand how serious it was. My son was almost one year old – his birthday is on March 1. We decided to move in with my parents, as their house seemed safer than our fifth-floor apartment. But the violence reached us there too. We heard bombs, saw helicopters flying low overhead. Our house was hit by a rocket. The windows shattered. We had to flee to the basement, where we lived for three months.

That’s when the Russian occupation of our region began. It became a blockade. There was almost no food, no diapers, no baby formula. My parents and I ate only once a day, so my son would have enough. We slaughtered chickens, geese, and ducks. One neighbor found a small piece of turkey in her freezer – I cried with gratitude that I could give it to my child.

After three months, I knew we had to flee. I knew people who had tried and died, their cars hitting landmines. I was terrified. But staying might be even more dangerous. My husband was already in Europe and kept asking if I could come with our son. We tried to leave the occupied zone eleven times. Ten times we were stopped – there were no safe corridors, no green routes, no guarantees. On the eleventh try, we made it. When I saw the Ukrainian flag waving again after three months, I cried. The pain and fear of that time are still with me.

We stayed in the free part of Ukraine for another month. I arranged passports, saw doctors, took care of everything. Then we traveled via Moldova to Amsterdam, where my husband was waiting for us. Since July 2022, we’ve lived in Roermond. The municipality helped us – with food, diapers, a small bed. The kindness of the people here touched me deeply.

In the beginning, it was hard. I didn’t speak the language, didn’t know anyone. Everything was new, and I fell into a depression. But people helped us – with their hands, with pictures, with gestures. I started learning English, and now I’m waiting to start a Dutch language course. My husband has a permanent job at an outlet in Roermond, and our son goes to school. He’s doing well.

In the meantime, I do volunteer work at the Ukrainian school “Kryla” in Maastricht and sing in “Ptaha,” a choir of Ukrainian women. We sing, share our stories, and show that Ukrainian women are strong.

My parents still live in Ukraine. So does my brother. I miss them. I send gifts, try to help. Ukraine is and always will be my home. But here in the Netherlands, I feel safe. We want to stay here, build a life, rent a house in or near Roermond. My greatest dream is peace. No more war. No more sirens, bombs, or fear. I believe in a future with blue skies – for my son, for Ukraine, and for the whole world.

Overreach: Inside the Delusion: What “Overreach” Reveals About Putin’s War

Matthews, Owen. Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine (2023). - Image by amazon.com.

I recently came across Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine by Owen Matthews — a book that reads with the fluency of frontline reporting and the authority of someone who has seen Russia from the inside. Matthews, a veteran Moscow correspondent, writes with speed and confidence, stitching together intelligence leaks, diplomatic whispers, and battlefield accounts into a sharp, coherent narrative.

At its best, Overreach captures the extraordinary convergence of misjudgments that led to the invasion: a leader sealed off from reality, an army unready for the war it was told to win in three days, and a West too entangled in its own cynicism to believe the warnings. Matthews reconstructs the atmosphere inside the Kremlin with the precision of a journalist who has cultivated his sources well. His portrait of Putin is chilling — not the omnipotent schemer of Western caricature, but an aging ruler trapped in his own mythology, convinced that history is waiting for his final act.

But this clarity comes at a price. Matthews’ narrative occasionally slides into neatness — a story too elegantly told for a conflict that remains chaotic, contradictory, and unresolved. The reader rarely encounters the moral murk, the grey zones of complicity and fatigue that define real war. Ordinary Russians appear mostly as footnotes to elite decision-making, and Ukraine’s agency, while acknowledged, is often framed as reaction rather than initiative. The analysis sometimes echoes the Western policy consensus more than it interrogates it.

Still, Overreach succeeds on its own terms: it’s a readable, intelligent account of how hubris, fear, and historical delusion collided in 2022. Matthews’ talent lies in connecting personalities to consequences, and his prose hums with restrained anger — the tone of someone who knows too well that none of this had to happen.

If the book has a lesson, it’s this: wars are rarely born of strategy alone, but of misread intentions and unchecked pride. Overreach reminds us that power, once convinced of its own inevitability, is already in decline.

Matthews, Owen. Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine (2023).

Russia, The Eternal Return of Suppression: 2022 and Beyond - The Great Break

The events of February 24, 2022, marked the most dramatic rupture between Russia and the West since the Cold War. In the early hours of the morning, Russian forces launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine from multiple directions — pushing south from Belarus toward Kyiv, east from Russia into the Donbas, and north from Crimea into the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. The Kremlin framed it as a “special military operation,” but its scale and ambition made clear it was a war to redraw borders and reshape Europe’s security architecture.

The Failed Blitzkrieg
Moscow’s plan for a lightning strike — seizing Kyiv within days, decapitating Ukraine’s leadership, and installing a pro-Russian government — collapsed in the face of fierce and determined resistance. Ukrainian forces, bolstered by volunteers and armed with Western-supplied anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, halted the advance. The battles for Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv became early symbols of defiance. By April, Russian troops withdrew from the north, leaving behind evidence of atrocities in towns like Bucha, and concentrated their efforts on the eastern front.

A War of Attrition
With the initial gamble failed, the conflict shifted into a grinding war of attrition. Artillery duels, long-range missile strikes, and the increasing use of drones became defining features of the battlefield. The siege and destruction of Mariupol shocked the world, as tens of thousands of civilians endured bombardment, shortages of food and water, and forced evacuations. Millions of Ukrainians fled abroad, creating the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War. Meanwhile, Western sanctions hit Russia hard, freezing assets, severing banking connections, and limiting access to critical technologies — though high global energy prices kept Moscow’s war machine funded.

The Expanding Battlefield
By 2023 and 2024, the war’s intensity did not diminish. Both sides adapted technologically: Ukraine integrated Western air defenses and precision-guided munitions, while Russia ramped up drone and missile production with the help of Iran and North Korea. The Black Sea became another contested arena, with Ukraine striking Russian naval assets and supply lines to Crimea. Fighting spread to previously quieter sectors, and both armies dug deeper into fortified positions reminiscent of the First World War.

Global Realignment
Russia’s isolation from the West drove it into a tighter embrace with China, India, Iran, and North Korea, forming a loose but significant network of states willing to trade, share technology, and counterbalance Western influence. NATO, far from fractured, expanded to include Finland, with Sweden on the way — a strategic setback for Moscow. The European Union accelerated its energy diversification, ending decades of dependence on Russian gas. The war shattered the assumptions that had underpinned Europe’s post–Cold War order, reviving large-scale military spending and long-term security planning.

Shifting Political Currents
Across Europe and beyond, the war reshaped politics. Governments faced pressure over rising energy prices and defense budgets. Populist movements sought to exploit divisions over aid to Ukraine, while others rallied around the need to defend democratic states from authoritarian aggression. In Russia, dissent was met with harsh repression, new laws criminalized criticism of the war, and thousands of political opponents, journalists, and activists fled abroad.

An Uncertain Future
By 2025, the frontlines had shifted only marginally. Neither side could deliver a decisive blow. Ukraine remained steadfast in its goal of restoring its 1991 borders, while Russia showed no sign of relinquishing occupied territories. The costs — measured in lives lost, economies strained, and trust shattered — promised to shape the region for decades to come. Whether the conflict ends in a negotiated settlement, a frozen front, or continued escalation remains one of the central geopolitical questions of the 21st century.

Further Reading:

• Luke Harding – Invasion (2022)

• Serhii Plokhy – The Gates of Europe (2015)

• Mark Galeotti – Putin’s Wars (2022)

• Lawrence Freedman – Command (2022)

Russia, The Eternal Return of Suppression: From Georgia to Ukraine

The 21st century saw Russia reassert itself on the world stage — often through military force.

War in Georgia
In 2008, tensions in the Caucasus erupted. Georgia sought to reclaim the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which were backed by Moscow. Russia responded with a swift military intervention, routing Georgian forces and recognizing the two regions as independent — a signal that Moscow would not tolerate NATO’s eastward reach.

Ukraine’s Turning Point
In late 2013, Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yanukovych, abandoned a planned agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties to Russia. This sparked mass protests — the Euromaidan movement — in Kyiv. The demonstrations swelled into a revolution, and Yanukovych fled the country in February 2014.

Annexation of Crimea and War in Donbas
Within weeks, Russian troops seized Crimea, citing the need to protect Russian speakers. A hastily organized referendum — unrecognized by most of the world — formalized its annexation. In eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian separatists declared “people’s republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk. Supported by Russian fighters and weapons, they fought the Ukrainian army in a grinding conflict that left thousands dead.

The Frozen Conflict
The Minsk agreements of 2014 and 2015 sought to end the war but failed to resolve the core dispute. For eight years, low-intensity fighting continued, setting the stage for something far larger.

Further Reading:

• Richard Sakwa – Frontline Ukraine (2015)

• Anne Applebaum – Red Famine (2017)

• Timothy Snyder – The Road to Unfreedom (2018)

• Serhii Plokhy – Lost Kingdom (2017)

Russia, The Eternal Return of Suppression: From Chaos to Putin

Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin.

The 1990s in Russia were chaotic, hopeful, and brutal all at once. The Soviet collapse brought political freedom, but also economic ruin. Millions saw their savings vanish as inflation soared. State assets were sold off in rigged auctions, creating a new class of billionaires — the oligarchs — while ordinary Russians slid into poverty.

The Yeltsin Years
Boris Yeltsin presided over a turbulent democracy. Parliament clashed with the president; in 1993, tanks shelled the Russian White House during a political crisis. Chechnya declared independence, leading to a bloody war that humiliated the Russian army and deepened public discontent.

The Rise of Putin
In 1999, Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned, naming former KGB officer Vladimir Putin as acting president. Promising order after a decade of chaos, Putin won election in 2000. His early years coincided with a surge in oil prices, fueling economic growth and restoring a sense of stability.

Consolidation of Power
Putin moved quickly to centralize authority. Independent television networks were taken over by the state; regional governors lost their autonomy; political opponents were sidelined or prosecuted. The second war in Chechnya was waged with brutal efficiency, crushing separatism but leaving a legacy of repression.

Further Reading:

• Anna Politkovskaya – Putin’s Russia (2004)

• Masha Gessen – The Man Without a Face (2012)

• Fiona Hill & Clifford Gaddy – Mr. Putin (2013)

• David E. Hoffman – The Oligarchs (2002)

Russia, The Eternal Return of Suppression: The Fall of the Soviet Union

Mikhael Gorbachev, and his Glasnost and Perestroika.

By the early 1980s, the Soviet Union was a superpower in name but ailing in reality. Its economy was stagnant, its leadership geriatric, and its people weary of shortages and repression. Then came a man who promised change: Mikhail Gorbachev.

Glasnost and Perestroika
Gorbachev, taking power in 1985, sought to reform the system with perestroika (economic restructuring) and glasnost (openness). Censorship was eased; criticism of the government became possible. State enterprises gained more autonomy, and limited private business was allowed. But these reforms also exposed decades of corruption and inefficiency.

Nationalism Resurges
With glasnost came a flood of suppressed history: the Stalinist purges, the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, and the scale of wartime losses. In the Baltic states, Ukraine, Georgia, and elsewhere, nationalist movements gained momentum. The USSR’s empire in Eastern Europe collapsed almost overnight in 1989, as one communist regime after another fell — first in Poland, then Hungary, East Germany, and beyond.

The Coup and the Collapse
In August 1991, hardline communists staged a coup against Gorbachev. Crowds in Moscow, led by Russian President Boris Yeltsin, resisted, and the coup failed. But the attempt fatally weakened the central government. By December, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus declared the USSR dissolved. On December 25, 1991, the Soviet flag came down over the Kremlin for the last time.

The Legacy
The USSR’s collapse ended the Cold War but left behind 15 independent states, a shattered economy, and unresolved questions about identity and power — questions that still reverberate today.

Further Reading:

• Serhii Plokhy – The Last Empire (2014)

• Vladislav Zubok – Collapse (2021)

• Archie Brown – The Gorbachev Factor (1996)

• Stephen Kotkin – Armageddon Averted (2001)

Russia, The Eternal Return of Suppression: The Cold War - Confrontation and Control

Map of post–World War II Europe illustrating the Iron Curtain dividing Eastern and Western blocs. License: © Sémhur / Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC BY‑SA 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution‑ShareAlike 4.0 International).

The end of the Second World War left Europe divided — and the Soviet Union standing as one of two superpowers. The Red Army’s march west had not only defeated Nazi Germany but also planted the seeds of Soviet influence deep into Eastern Europe. What followed was a forty-year geopolitical standoff that shaped the modern world.

The Iron Curtain Descends
By 1947, Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech captured the new reality: Eastern Europe, from the Baltic to the Balkans, was under communist governments loyal to Moscow. The USSR created a buffer zone of satellite states — Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria — all bound together through political repression, secret police, and a common economic system, COMECON.

Containment and Confrontation
The United States responded with the policy of containment, pledging to halt the spread of communism. NATO was formed in 1949; the Warsaw Pact, its Eastern counterpart, followed in 1955. The Korean War (1950–1953) saw Soviet pilots secretly fighting for North Korea, while crises in Berlin repeatedly brought the superpowers to the brink.

Cracks in the Bloc
Even within the communist camp, unrest boiled. In 1956, a workers’ revolt in Hungary was crushed by Soviet tanks, killing thousands. In 1968, the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia — a movement for “socialism with a human face” — was similarly put down by a Warsaw Pact invasion. The Brezhnev Doctrine justified such interventions as necessary to preserve the socialist system.

The Arms and Space Races
The Cold War was fought not only with ideology and armies but also with technology. The Soviets shocked the world in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, and in 1961 by sending Yuri Gagarin into space. But prestige in space masked economic stagnation at home. The nuclear arms race consumed vast resources, and the fear of mutually assured destruction hung over the globe.

Dissent Behind the Curtain
While dissidents like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn exposed the horrors of the Gulag, and Andrei Sakharov spoke out for human rights, the KGB ensured dissent was contained. Yet underground movements, samizdat literature, and the whispers of reform kept the spirit of resistance alive.

Further Reading:

• Anne Applebaum – Iron Curtain (2012)

• John Lewis Gaddis – The Cold War (2005)

• Vladislav Zubok – A Failed Empire (2007)

• Tony Judt – Postwar (2005)

Russia, The Eternal Return of Suppression: The Second World War and a New World Order

Pact with the Devil, Joseph Stalin shakes hands with German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop at the Kremlin, Moscow, 1939. Based on photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H27337 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 DE.

The Second World War was both a catastrophe and a crucible for the Soviet Union. It transformed the USSR from an embattled revolutionary state into one of the two global superpowers — but at a staggering human cost.

The Pact with the Devil
In August 1939, the world was stunned by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The Soviet Union, sworn enemy of fascism, signed a non-aggression treaty with Nazi Germany. A secret protocol divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. When Germany invaded Poland from the west on September 1, the Red Army marched in from the east two weeks later, seizing territory promised in the pact. Within a year, the USSR had annexed the Baltic states and parts of Romania, and waged a bitter war against Finland in the Winter War of 1939–1940.

Operation Barbarossa: The Shock
At dawn on June 22, 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the largest military invasion in history. Three million German soldiers, supported by allies, surged into Soviet territory. Stalin had ignored multiple warnings from Western intelligence and his own spies, convinced Hitler would not break the pact so soon. The result was chaos: Soviet forces were encircled, millions captured, and vast swathes of land overrun in the first months.

A War of Survival
Yet the Soviet Union did not collapse. Moscow did not fall. The Soviet leadership relocated industry east of the Urals, away from German bombers. Ordinary citizens endured unimaginable hardship — cities under siege, villages burned, families torn apart. The Siege of Leningrad lasted 872 days, killing over a million through starvation, shelling, and cold. The Battle of Stalingrad (1942–1943) became the turning point: a brutal, house-to-house struggle that ended with the surrender of an entire German army.

The Road to Berlin
From Stalingrad onward, the Red Army went on the offensive. In 1944, Operation Bagration annihilated Germany’s Army Group Centre, liberating Belarus and pushing west. Soviet troops advanced through Poland, Romania, Hungary, and into the heart of Germany. On May 2, 1945, Berlin fell to Soviet forces, and on May 9, the USSR celebrated Victory Day.

The Human Cost and Political Gain
The Soviet Union emerged victorious, but the toll was staggering: at least 20 million dead, countless wounded, and vast destruction of towns, farms, and infrastructure. Yet geopolitically, the USSR gained enormous influence. Communist governments, backed by Soviet military presence, took power across Eastern Europe. The wartime alliance with Britain and the United States soon gave way to suspicion and rivalry — the Cold War was already germinating.

Further Reading:

• Richard Overy – Russia’s War (1997)

• Antony Beevor – Stalingrad (1998)

• Catherine Merridale – Ivan’s War (2006)

• Evan Mawdsley – Thunder in the East (2005)

Russia, The Eternal Return of Suppression: From Lenin to Stalin - Building the Soviet State

Joseph Stalin

The birth of the Soviet Union in 1922 was both the conclusion of the revolutionary struggle and the beginning of a new experiment in governance. The Bolsheviks had won the Civil War, but they inherited a country ravaged by years of conflict, famine, and economic collapse.

Lenin’s Pragmatic Retreat
To stabilize the economy, Lenin introduced the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921. It was a tactical retreat from full socialism: small businesses and private markets were allowed to operate, peasants could sell surplus grain, and foreign investment was cautiously welcomed. The policy brought modest recovery, but also ideological unease among hardline communists.

The Succession Struggle
When Lenin died in January 1924, he left no clear successor. The ensuing power struggle pitted Leon Trotsky — charismatic leader of the Red Army — against Joseph Stalin, the party’s General Secretary. Stalin used his position to quietly build alliances, control appointments, and marginalize rivals. By the late 1920s, Trotsky was exiled, and Stalin stood unchallenged.

The First Five-Year Plan
In 1928, Stalin launched the First Five-Year Plan, aiming to transform the USSR from an agrarian economy into an industrial superpower. Massive projects such as the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station and the Magnitogorsk steelworks became symbols of progress. Industrial output surged, but at tremendous human cost — workers endured harsh conditions, shortages, and strict discipline.

Collectivization and Famine
In the countryside, Stalin forced millions of peasants into collective farms. Those who resisted — labelled “kulaks” — were deported or executed. Grain was requisitioned to feed cities and finance industrialization, even during poor harvests. The result was famine on a massive scale. In Ukraine, the Holodomor of 1932–1933 killed millions, a trauma that still shapes Ukrainian–Russian relations.

The Great Terror
By the mid-1930s, Stalin’s paranoia turned inward. A wave of purges swept the Communist Party, the military, and the intelligentsia. Show trials extracted confessions through torture; executions and Gulag sentences followed. Entire generations of revolutionary leaders vanished. Yet even as fear spread, the Soviet state consolidated its grip, and Stalin’s image as the “Father of Nations” was cultivated through propaganda.

The Soviet Union on the Eve of War
By the end of the 1930s, the USSR was a formidable industrial power with a centralized command economy. The human toll had been immense, but Stalin believed the sacrifices had prepared the country for the challenges ahead — challenges that would arrive sooner than anyone expected.

Further Reading:

• Stephen Kotkin – Stalin: Paradoxes of Power (2014)

• Robert Service – Stalin: A Biography (2004)

• Orlando Figes – Revolutionary Russia 1891–1991 (2014)

• Sheila Fitzpatrick – Everyday Stalinism (1999)

Russia, The Eternal Return of Suppression: 1917 - Two Revolutions and a Civil War

The year 1917 was a whirlwind that shattered centuries of monarchy and reshaped the map of Eurasia. It began with bread queues and strikes, and ended with the birth of the world’s first socialist state.

February: The Fall of the Tsar
By February, Petrograd was gripped by strikes and food riots. Soldiers refused orders to fire on crowds and joined the demonstrators instead. Within days, the centuries-old Romanov dynasty collapsed. Nicholas II abdicated, and a Provisional Government took over, promising liberal reforms and elections.

Dual Power and Disillusionment
The Provisional Government shared power uneasily with the Petrograd Soviet, a council of workers’ and soldiers’ deputies. The government kept Russia in World War I, hoping to honor alliances with Britain and France. This decision proved disastrous, as the war continued to drain resources and lives. Radical parties gained support, especially the Bolsheviks, who called for “Peace, Land, Bread.”

October: The Bolshevik Takeover
Led by Lenin, the Bolsheviks staged an armed uprising on October 25 (November 7 in the modern calendar). They seized key points in Petrograd and toppled the Provisional Government almost without bloodshed. The new Soviet regime withdrew from the war through the harsh Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ceding large territories to Germany.

Civil War and Red Victory
From 1918 to 1922, Russia descended into civil war. The Bolshevik Red Army fought the White forces — a mix of monarchists, republicans, and foreign intervention troops — across a vast front. Nationalist movements sought independence in Ukraine, the Baltics, and the Caucasus. The Reds ultimately triumphed, consolidating control through the Cheka secret police and “War Communism,” which requisitioned grain and suppressed dissent. In 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was officially proclaimed.

Further Reading:

• John Reed – Ten Days That Shook the World (1919)

• Sheila Fitzpatrick – The Russian Revolution (1982)

• Richard Pipes – The Russian Revolution (1990)

• A. Beevor – Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 (2022)

Ukrainians Strengthen Europe

Since the war forced millions of Ukrainians to leave their homes in 2022, their story in Europe has evolved far beyond one of refuge and survival. By 2025, they have become an undeniable force for economic growth, innovation, and cultural vitality across the continent.

In Poland alone, Ukrainians now make up around five percent of the workforce. In 2024 they contributed an impressive €3.6 billion in taxes and social security payments, according to a joint UNHCR–Deloitte report. Their labour and entrepreneurship boosted Poland’s GDP by 2.7%—and they did so without taking jobs away from Poles or depressing wages. Similar patterns are emerging in the Czech Republic, where studies show no negative impact on local employment, but instead a filling of critical labour shortages in logistics, healthcare, construction, and technical trades.

The entrepreneurial drive is equally remarkable. One in ten new businesses registered in Poland last year was Ukrainian-owned, from small tech firms to expanding restaurant brands like Lviv Croissants and Drunken Cherry, now opening outlets in Germany, France, Switzerland and even London. These ventures no longer cater only to Ukrainian communities; they target the wider European public with fresh ideas and a distinctive cultural flair.

This spirit of innovation is being noticed at the highest levels. In July 2025, the European Innovation Council committed €20 million to Ukrainian deep-tech start-ups in AI, robotics, biotechnology, and cybersecurity. Dozens of companies will receive up to €500,000 each to fast-track their products to market and forge international collaborations.

And beyond the economic data lies a powerful human story. The Sunflower Project, launched by the Tent Partnership for Refugees, is one of the largest employment initiatives for displaced Ukrainians in Europe. It aims to generate €2 billion in annual income for refugees, with a strong focus on Ukrainian women—many of whom arrived alone with their children. The project works with over 50 major European employers, including IKEA, H&M, Accenture, and Carrefour, to provide tailored job opportunities, language training, and childcare support. For example, in Germany, a major logistics company has hired over 300 Ukrainian women in supply chain roles, offering flexible schedules so they can balance work and family. In France, a retail chain partnered with the programme to create fast-track training for store managers, enabling qualified Ukrainian women to move into leadership positions within months. In the Netherlands, IT companies in the Sunflower network are tapping into the skills of Ukrainian software developers, connecting them with international clients and long-term career pathways.

Through work, entrepreneurship, and community involvement, Ukrainians are not just integrating—they are actively shaping Europe’s future. Their contributions are a reminder that migration, when met with opportunity, can spark mutual growth. The numbers tell one side of the story, but the energy, resilience, and creativity Ukrainians bring to their new homes may be their most lasting gift to Europe.

Further reading

• UNHCR – Refugees generated 2.7% of Poland’s GDP in 2024

• Reuters – Ukrainian refugees give Poland big economic boost

• CEPR – Labour market access shows no negative impact

• Reuters – Ukrainian businesses eye Westward expansion

• EIC – Support for Ukrainian deep-tech SMEs

• Tent Partnership for Refugees – The Sunflower Project

Russia, The Eternal Return of Suppression: The Fuse to the Powder Keg - Russia Before 1917

Tsar Nicholas II

In the early 20th century, the Russian Empire was vast, diverse, and unstable — a giant straddling Europe and Asia, rich in resources yet poor in governance. Tsar Nicholas II sat atop an autocratic system that resisted meaningful reform, even as the world around it modernized. The gap between the ruling elite and the majority of the population was staggering.

A Land of Peasants and Aristocrats
Over 80% of Russians were peasants, living in rural villages bound by centuries-old traditions. Many still carried the memory of serfdom, abolished only in 1861, and freedom had brought little improvement. Small plots, heavy taxes, and outdated farming methods left millions in chronic poverty. Meanwhile, a tiny aristocracy — less than 2% of the population — owned vast estates and enjoyed lives of comfort and privilege.

Industrialization Without Inclusion
By the late 1800s, Russia was industrializing, but unevenly. St. Petersburg and Moscow had textile mills, metal works, and railways. Harsh factory conditions, long hours, and low pay bred resentment among workers. The new urban proletariat had no political voice; trade unions were illegal, strikes often met with armed force. Russia’s economic modernization created the very class that would later become the backbone of revolutionary movements.

The Empire of Many Nations
Russia was not a homogeneous state. It ruled over Poles, Ukrainians, Balts, Finns, Armenians, Georgians, and Central Asian peoples — many of whom resented Russian dominance. Nationalist movements grew in strength, often clashing with the imperial government, which sought to “Russify” minorities by imposing the Russian language and Orthodox religion.

1905: The First Shockwave
The Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) was meant to project imperial power but ended in humiliation. The defeat sparked unrest at home, culminating in the events of January 9, 1905 — “Bloody Sunday” — when troops fired on peaceful demonstrators in St. Petersburg. Nationwide strikes, mutinies, and uprisings followed. The tsar reluctantly granted a parliament, the Duma, but its powers were limited, and opposition parties were repressed. The monarchy had dodged collapse, but its legitimacy was badly weakened.

World War I: The Breaking Point
When war broke out in 1914, patriotism ran high, but Russia’s military was poorly equipped and badly led. Casualties mounted into the millions. The home front suffered from food shortages, inflation, and collapsing transport networks. By 1916, the tsar’s decision to take personal command of the army tied him directly to its failures. Meanwhile, political intrigue in the capital, symbolized by the influence of the mystic Rasputin, discredited the monarchy further. The empire was a powder keg — and the spark was coming.

Further Reading:

• Orlando Figes – A People’s Tragedy (1996)

• Hugh Seton-Watson – The Russian Empire 1801–1917 (1967)

• S. A. Smith – Russia in Revolution (2017)

Russia, The Eternal Return of Suppression: Placing the War in Ukraine in Historical Context

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, it was more than a war between two countries. It was the most direct challenge to Europe’s post–Cold War order, the most violent conflict on the continent since the Second World War, and a shockwave with global repercussions.

For many, the war seemed to erupt suddenly — a bolt from the blue. But the roots of this confrontation run deep, woven through a century of revolutions, wars, ideological struggles, and shifting borders. To understand the decisions being made today in Moscow, Kyiv, Brussels, and Washington, we must first understand how we got here.

This series of blogs is meant to provide that context. It will trace the modern history of Russia, Ukraine, and the wider post-Soviet space from the last years of the tsars to the present day. It is not just a story of leaders and battles, but of societies in transformation — and of how history shapes political choices, national identities, and international relations.

Why Ukraine Matters to the World
Ukraine’s struggle is not only about its own survival. It is also about:

• Whether borders in Europe can be changed by force.

• Whether smaller nations have the right to choose their alliances without pressure from larger neighbors.

• How the outcome of this war will influence the future of European security, global trade, and the balance of power between democracies and autocracies.

What This Series Covers
The historical arc will be told in a number of blog items, beginning with the social and political forces that led to the Russian Revolution of 1917, and moving through the rise of the Soviet Union, the Cold War, the collapse of the USSR, the chaotic 1990s, and Russia’s resurgence under Vladimir Putin — culminating in the events of 2014, the invasion of 2022 and the mess we are in today.

Anne Applebaum on Why Putin Refuses Peace

Anne Applebaum.

Anne Applebaum has argued that one of the biggest mistakes in understanding the war in Ukraine is to see it as a struggle over territory. Russia already stretches across eleven time zones, with vast regions it can barely populate. It does not “need” Donetsk, Crimea, or any other piece of land. For Putin, the war is not about geography but about power—the power to dominate Ukraine and pull it back into Russia’s orbit.

This is why talk of “land for peace” has always missed the point. Even when Western leaders hinted at deals that would have given Moscow large concessions, Putin was uninterested. He still believes he can win outright. That belief rests on a simple calculation: Americans are unreliable, Europeans are weak, and Ukrainians will eventually be bombed, starved, or demoralized into submission. If victory is still within reach, why settle?

Applebaum likens the war to France’s colonial fight in Algeria. Imperial powers often cling to the illusion that colonies can be held against their will. But just as Algeria was not French, Ukraine is not Russian. Both wars reveal the same truth: occupation cannot manufacture belonging. The question is not whether Moscow will one day accept this, but when.

Until that reckoning comes, Applebaum warns, hopes for quick ceasefires or neat compromises are illusions. Russia will only stop when defeat becomes undeniable, and the West’s task is to hasten that realization.

Further Reading

• Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism (2020)

• Anne Applebaum, Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine (2017)

• Timothy Snyder, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (2018)

• Serhii Plokhy, The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine (2015)

• Mark Galeotti, Putin’s Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine (2022)

• Michael Kimmage, Collision: The War in Ukraine and the Origins of the New Global Instability (2023)