How Ukrainians Lead

In 2014, as Putin's troops occupied Crimea, Ukraine's army was in disarray, having been deliberately run down by president Viktor Yanukovich.In 2022, when Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine, the enemy met a military transformed.Moscow boasted its army would be in Kyiv in three days. In the 60-kilometre long Russian armoured column aimed at Kyiv, enemy troops had packed their dress uniforms anticipating a ‘victory' parade in the Ukrainian capital.The assessment of Western allies gave Ukraine little or no chance at the onset of the David and Goliath battle. Ukrainians had other ideas. Across the country ordinary people self-mobilised. That defiance – historical, visceral and spontaneous – was distilled in the Ukrainian military, a ‘new model' army more than ready to face the existential challenge.The hubris of ‘three days in the capital' became the Battle of Kyiv; and after 30 days Russian forces were in full retreatacross north Ukraine.