The first year of the war

UKRAINE - In Brief 24 Feb 2023 by Dmytro Boyarchuk

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A year ago, we woke up to a new reality. It was a day when all Ukrainians had to start anew, reevaluating themselves and their surroundings. However, it was also a day that put everything in its place. All the previously complex issues became simple and clear with just one click. The Russian leadership made a big miscalculation by assuming that Ukrainians thought the same way as they did. They became victims of their propaganda, treating Ukrainian society as a leader-based nation. It was a big surprise for them to learn that Ukrainians are a nation of horizontal networks, with little dependence on what is happening at the top of the power. Many Ukrainians, including myself, also made a miscalculation by assuming that the Russian leadership had some logic and was basing its decisions on high-quality information. We saw that Ukrainian society had changed drastically and matured since 2014. We saw the strengthened capacities of the Ukrainian army over the past eight years after the first aggression of Russia. It was difficult to believe that Moscow would commit such a suicidal move. Vladimir Putin assumed that for inhabitants of a territory (that is how he treats Ukrainians), there was little difference in who was in power as long as they could elect a comedian for the presidential post. He ignored that the freedom to elect anyone for the top position, even a comedian, was of great value to the nation, and people were ready to defend this right. Reports from acquaintances indicate that Ukraine's central power was non-functional during the first days of aggression. In this assumption, Vladimir Putin was right that the central power of Ukraine would break if the hit was str...