Year 1 of our 🇺🇦 blog: A mad, bad, sad year.

12 months: 6 analyzing the hesitant Biden, 3 worrying about the Trump threat, 3 tearing out our hair over the Donny-Elon-Vlad show. But - all year we also covered the incredible Ukrainian resilience.

(Our ‘front page’ one year in)

BY MICHAEL ANDERSEN

The photo below was the first photo we chose to illustrate our blog launched one year ago; we wanted to stress the role that history plays in Ukraine, as well as in its relations with Russia, but also show that history is being used, manipulated, reinvented, disinvented.

“Putin, do I look like a Nazi?” asked Olga, the former schoolteacher in the photo from a demonstration on the Maidan in 2014. With elegant sarcasm, she answered both Putin’s lies and the ignorance of many Western media and so-called experts.

One of the things that I am most happy about from our first year, is that we managed to interview a lot of people - Ukrainians but not only - who work hard on keeping Ukrainian history and culture alive, fighting against incorrect stereotypes, developing methods of ‘delivery’, in literature, music, art, research. Our ‘Blitz Interviews’ also included a lot of foreigners who have made Ukraine their home - some many years ago - and their activities for Ukraine. And soldiers and combat medics, of course, we interviewed our fair share of those as well - some Ukrainians, some foreigners - who voluntarily risk their life for Ukraine and for freedom.

Make yourself a cup of coffee and dive into our archive, and you will meet the people who keep Ukraine going.

Judging from the comments and the increasing readership of our blog, it seems that many of you appreciate our materials. Personally, I have enjoyed your comments and questions very much.

Well, 97-98% of them, I’d say; I must admit that it gets more and more difficult to stay civil when I read the 2-3% of comments which are so obviously meant to hurt, lie or manipulate Ukraine and Ukrainians, or simply people who favor democracy and free thinking.

But then again, how could it be otherwise when the person now residing in the Oval Office himself often spews utter nonsense? That has undoubtedly been the biggest surprise of the past year - not that the Americans were silly enough to elect a raping, racist, lying, misogynistic, manipulating bully (again) - but that he, upon taking office, went as far as he did, and as fast as he did.

To me, the most remarkable story of the year - and there are lots to choose from - can at first maybe seem a ‘small’ one, a detail. But, as they say, the devil is in the detail. It’s about elections - and it has three sides: a Russian, a Trumpian and a Ukrainian side.

That Vladimir Putin for more than one year now has claimed that the Ukrainian President is illegitimate is predictable and pure KGB, sowing discontent and instability. Anybody who - like me - has lived and worked in different places throughout the (more or less) former Soviet Union immediately recognizes that dirty trick. But that the U.S. President fell for that one - ended up labeling Zelensky a “dictator” “only supported by 4% of the Ukrainian population” - and now, in tandem with Putin, is forcing elections in Ukraine, is nothing less than shocking. With all the disastrous consequences elections in Ukraine in the middle of a war will have. And that’s not my opinion, that’s the opinion of any expert you'd ask.

But luckily, this nasty story also has a Ukrainian side, a positive, even impressive one, about political maturity that the average American clearly is not capable of: yes, the polling numbers of Volydymyr Zelensky are falling, although of course not to 4% as Donald Trump lied, but it is a fact that today only 23% of the Ukrainians would vote for Zelensky (halved from one year earlier). But - and this is where the important details come in, without which you will get Ukraine very, very wrong, Donald - no less than 57% of the Ukrainians trust Zelensky and 75-85% still want him to stay in power till the war is over. Meaning that the average Ukrainian is perfectly capable of distinguishing between their own political wishes and the overall stability of the country, as they see it.

Even Ukrainians who do not plan to vote for Zelensky understand that his persona and bravery has been pivotal to the cohesion and survival of Ukraine, and that the ex-comedian dressed in his eternal army fatigues has been very efficient in keeping the international limelight on Ukraine.

Nobody can forget Zelensky’s Churchill-like answer to the U.S. offer of extracting him to safety during the first days of the invasion when it looked like Kyiv was about to fall to the Russians - “I need ammo not a ride.”

Putin the KGBist understands this. And therefore he wants to get rid of Zelensky. Donald Trump - well, we saw him berating Zelenky for not wearing a suit last week at the disastrous, humiliating meeting in the Oval Office.

And so, although we started out with a focus on the complexities of Ukraine, we end our first year on a bizarre, Orwellian note: In 2025, it is the western side of the equation that has become increasingly difficult to understand - the U.S. selling out Ukraine in the most shameful manner possible.

I have been studying politics for more than 40 years - but, nevertheless, I don’t get President Trump’s motives. I still shy away from the speculations that flourish more and more around me now. Krasnov? Surely, it cannot be true, can it? I guess that by the time this blog turns two, we will know.

For now, I will end by readily admitting that I had not foreseen a year ago that, in March 2025, the main proponent of Russian propaganda would be the President of the United States of America. Ronald Reagan is turning in his grave, not to mention John McCain.

For our next year, plans are already well underway to produce more reportages - and more podcasts - from the different regions of Ukraine, even more in-depth profiles of the courageous (wo)men who will defeat the Russian invaders. We will, of course, continue with our analyses - judging from your comments, our readers seem to appreciate that we often add a different point of view, those longer lines of history, Mr Fukuyama.

Plus, several guest writers are, as we speak, preparing their series of articles for this blog - some from other regions of the former Soviet Union - for Putin is not only messing about in Ukraine, of course. And we will add a couple of recurring columnists to the blog.

And yes, as promised from the onset, we shall keep asking unpleasant questions. This blog considers it to be pro-Ukrainian to ask tough questions of Ukraine and Ukrainians, it is simply part of a healthy democracy. And, yes, Ukraine is a democracy – with a popularly elected president.

I would also love to publish more positive stories - about the rebuilding of Ukraine, preferably for Russian money, about Ukraine getting much closer to the EU much faster, about justice for the Ukrainians, about Putin in The Hague, about the end of Lukashenko, and about the Europeans finally standing up and taking responsibility for European security.

… and pigs will fly, as they say.

Thank you for your interest, comments, questions, shares (and payments), keep them coming!

Michael