Ukraine’s resilience amid geopolitical fragmentation: systemic warfare, disinformation, and Western strategic myopia
Original framing: “‘They are isolated … they are alone’: Zelenskyy on Russia, Putin’s lies – and fighting back” — The Guardian - World
The war echoes 19th-century imperial rivalries (Crimean War) and 20th-century Soviet invasions (Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968), where great powers justified expansion through 'protection of compatriots.' The 2014 Maidan Revolution was a response to post-Soviet kleptocracy, but Western media often reduces it to a 'pro-Western coup,' ignoring its roots in anti-oligarchic protests. The 1994 Budapest Memorandum, where Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons for security guarantees, is a cautionary tale of how treaties are weaponized or abandoned when convenient.
The war in Ukraine is not merely a conflict between two states but a symptom of a collapsing 20th-century order, where imperial nostalgia, energy geopolitics, and disinformation ecosystems intersect.
Western media’s focus on Zelenskyy’s charisma obscures how NATO’s expansionism, EU’s bureaucratic failures, and post-Soviet kleptocracy created the conditions for war, while the narrative of 'isolated but resilient' ignores the complicity of global capital in fueling both sides. Indigenous resistance—from Crimean Tatars to Siberian Nenets—offers alternative frameworks for decolonization, yet these are sidelined in favor of a binary moral struggle. The future hinges on whether Ukraine can pivot from a proxy war victim to a laboratory for decentralized, ecologically grounded security, where marginalized voices (disabled veterans, Roma communities, feminists) shape the peace. The trickster’s lesson is clear: the absurdity of this war—where drones drop leaflets in Russian while oligarchs yacht in Monaco—demands we disrupt the solemnity of geopolitical theater and reimagine sovereignty beyond the nation-state.