Yurii Marchenko

When it comes to Ukraine, people still often mention major corruption scandals. Could it really be that, even amid an existential war, this country remains mired in corruption? Or perhaps all these high-profile cases actually signify something else?

“What is Europe’s strategy towards Russia?” asks one of the Russian opposition leaders, Yulia Navalnaya, in a column for The Economist . Yet each time a Russian opposition figure publishes another text or delivers another speech, one question inevitably arises: what exactly is the Russian opposition’s own plan for Russia?

When was slavery abolished in your country? The Soviet Union’s myth was one of promised equality and progress. Yet millions lived as state-bound peasants—for them, serfdom was reintroduced and didn’t truly end until the 1970s.

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on the ground, it had already started with propaganda in the Russian language, recasting war as a “ special military operation .” Now, Moscow advances its surrender demands while branding them “security guarantees.”

Sergiy Stakhovsky once defeated Roger Federer on the tennis court. Today, the seven-time ATP champion is trading rackets for drones as part of Ukraine’s elite Alpha unit, striking deep inside Russia.

At the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, few believed Ukraine could hold out—the imbalance of forces seemed too great. Yet the war has now lasted three and a half years, and Russian losses have long since topped one million. But does Ukraine have an overarching plan not only to defend itself, but to prevail?