In the future, historians will write books about what really happened during the current escalation. The archives will open, sources will talk. And the books will address what was discussed at diplomatic negotiations, what the Kremlin actually wanted as it made its unfulfillable demands, and why sources in the Western media ramped up the threat of full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And of course, the British Foreign Office’s claim that it exposed Putin’s plans to organise a coup in Ukraine.
But while I hope to read these books in the future, I am writing this from Ukraine in early 2022, where the government is trying to control the panic that is both gripping society and threatening to collapse the economy. Right now, I’m worried about the threat of Russian invasion, and how I, and other people, can avoid a new war when we have no idea what is happening behind the scenes diplomatically.
Can we use the current escalation to make progress on solving the conflict in Donbas, now in its eighth year? And when can I, like all the other Ukrainians who are from Donbas, finally visit our home?
