Genuinely good news has been hard to come by these days, and this week it was ironic that one of its rare sources came from the horrific war in Ukraine that was started on February 24, 2022, by the mad ruler of Russia.
For those who have been hiding under a rock, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his troops on an unprovoked full-scale military invasion of neighboring Ukraine more than 200 days ago. Putin’s not-so-surprise “special military operation” was expected to last a few days, ending with the fall of the Ukrainian government and the installation of a Russian puppet.
What the Russians, and the rest of the world, didn’t expect was that Ukraine would put up a fight, led by its president Volodymyr Zelensky, who refused an offer for ride from the Americans when they offered to evacuate him and his family.
With the words “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride,” Zelensky was transformed from a run of the mill politician to a global rock star, and the war to defend his country from what was supposed to be the world’s 2nd biggest, baddest and strongest military force, was on.
Fortunately for Ukraine, the global community stood behind it, not allowing Russia to get away with the gravest act of war on European soil since World War II. Although the threat of nuclear annihilation stopped foreign boots on the ground to help the defenders, massive sanctions were imposed and all sorts of financial aid and weaponry flowed into Ukraine.
As the war slogged on, Ukraine proved its mettle by holding back the marauding Russians and the Russian army lost its luster as it continuously failed to achieve its ambitious objectives, resorting to brute force tactics that relied on artillery to shell its unwilling victim into submission.
The world saw how a culture of corruption and lies had whittled away at the supposedly great Russian military complex that resulted in Mr. Putin being led to believe that he was the commander-in-chief of a formidable force capable of achieving his simple instruction to invade its pesky neighbor. The past six months of the war in Ukraine has shown us, in the most brutal way possible, how corruption and lies can reduce something that was supposed to be great into a joke.
Aside from the Russians being terrible at this war that they started, it turns out the Ukrainians were pretty damn good at it. They leveraged what they had and mounted a very impressive defense of their country. Ukraine’s defenders employed the right strategies and tactics to make the most advantage of what they had. As the western powers sent weapons, financial aid, and intelligence, they were able to defend their capital city and slowly force back the attackers.
The good news I’m referring to is how, over the past few weeks, Ukraine surprised everybody, Putin most especially, by shifting from defense to offense and beating back the Russians even further back with a brilliant masterstroke of a counteroffensive in the Kharkiv area. What they achieved is impressive and proves to everyone that the good doesn’t always have to lose to evil.
With the right leadership and culture, the Ukrainian military proved that fighting back isn’t stupid or suicidal, as long as they get most of the support they asked for. When President Zelensky asked for ammo, not a ride; people thought that as a former actor and showman, he was just acting tough. It turned out that he knew that given the right support, his military could mount a credible defense. He never might have imagined back then that they could even go on the offensive within 200 days of D-Day, but here they are now, embarrassing the Russians on the greatest stage.
What Ukraine has done on the real battlefield has made me think about what we can do and should be doing about the figurative wars we are waging right now.
If you come to think of it, the wars against fake news, misinformation and mediocrity have seemed to be unbeatable against the well-funded enemies that have been waging it against us in recent years and I’m pretty sure most of us who are in the trenches must be pretty demoralized by now. The enemy is better funded, using our own resources against us, and based on what our society currently looks like, there seems to be nothing we can do anymore.
But if Ukraine can defend its turf against the behemoth that is Russia and even turn the tables by using good strategy and executing its tactics perfectly, our war is not yet lost. We can still mount a defense and maybe even a counteroffensive if we really want to. Our problem is that while the Ukrainians knew that their existence was being threatened, we do not even know that we are in a war and that our own existence is also threatened. That is why we are not fighting back hard enough, and that is why we will ultimately lose, even if the enemy is also full of corruption and lies.
Slava Ukraini!
As for us… good luck na lang.*
