Ukraine's Existential War

"Millions have left -- many of them young and able-bodied. You see them here in Calgary [Alberta]."

"They're here on temporary status. They can work, but it's very, very difficult. People are not going to come back if no inch of Ukraine is safe -- and I don't use those words lightly. That's what Ukrainians tell me they feel."

"No one voluntarily leaves their home. So the question is, if we give them citizenship, does that make it easier -- or harder -- for them to return? I'll be honest, that needs to be decided."

"We know Russia is waging hybrid warfare here, including election meddling [in Canada]. Our friends in Ottawa seem to think if we expel theirs, they'll expel ours and we'll lose so much. We can get other countries to represent us."

"Ukraine is still fighting. It will fight to the end. This is an existential war."

"Whether it's the missiles, either defensive or offensive military kit, or really hard-core sanctions, I think many Western leaders are actually still afraid of Putin ... we're afraid that if we push him too hard, he'll do the worst and reach for the nuclear button."

Michael Bociurkiw, Canadian-Ukrainian journalist, Odessa, Ukraine 

A  man carries a dog among rubble outside a residential building which was damaged during Russian missile and drone strike on Kyiv on June 2, 2026. Ukrainian refugees “are not going to come back if no inch of Ukraine is safe,” Canadian journalist Michael Bociurkiw warns. Photo by Roman PILIPEY/AFP via Getty Images

 

"Yes, you [Vladimir Putin] can still force Russians to exist this way. But your resources are shrinking significantly. You will not have enough money or political capital to keep buying the loyalty of Russians the way you have for the past 26 years."

"The front line today is the line from which diplomacy must begin [to negotiate an end to the war]."

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's meeting proposal with Vladimir Putin

 

"I see no sense [in a meeting after receiving such a 'rude' letter]."

"Is it a way to create conditions for a personal meeting and negotiations, or is it creating an environment in which it's impossible to hold any personal meetings at all?"

"I think it's the latter."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his office in Kyiv. The Ukrainian president tells Vladimir Putin in an open letter: ‘If you do not personally come to the conclusion that it is time to end this war, Ukraine will continue fighting for its existence.’ Photograph: Ukrainian presidential press service

 

After over four years of relentless attacks by Moscow's larger military against Ukraine's domestic infrastructure and its civilian population, attacks geared to destroying the country's energy structures to impact as deleteriously as possible winter living conditions year after year, while denials from the Kremlin assure the watching world that its military never sends missiles or drones to target civilians -- only military targets -- the Russian president is incensed over the social niceties spurned by the president whose nation he has mercilessly and without cause shattered.

 

  Putin insists Russia is winning the war and Ukraine must surrender territory   EPA

 

Russian efforts at destabilizing the Ukrainian government and its society and demoralizing its population  have failed. There is unity of purpose in Ukraine, even among the exhausted war-weary population -- and morale continues to be as elevated as can be possible in such conflict circumstances. By seeking to divide the civilian population from its hard-pressed government, Russia has succeeded in pushing them closer together in the common existential purpose of survival.

 

And while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a rare open letter to his Russian counterpart proposed a meeting for the purpose of negotiating an end to the war, face-to-face, it is clear that Russian demands and Ukraine's steadfast position can never come to any agreement, despite the urging of U.S. President Donald Trump, pleased at the prospect of the two meeting: "I'm glad that they're maybe talking about meeting, I think we had a lot to do with it. But I think it would be great if they met, they should get it done."

 

Trump says Zelenskyy-Putin meeting would be ‘great’ after Ukraine president’s letter - still from video

 

For starters, President Zelenskyy made it clear that he was prepared for a "full ceasefire" and "all-for-all exchange of prisoners of war", even before such a meeting could take place. He made it abundantly clear that it is imperative for Russia to return the Ukrainian civilians and children who had been forcibly taken to Russia during the war. Alluding to recent successes for Ukraine on the battlefield, Mr. Zelenskyy also reminded Mr. Putin that Ukrainian intelligence-gathering affirmed that over 30,000 Russian soldiers were killed or seriously wounded in May alone.

 

Russia itself has been caught up in a war its population never dreamed would reach them, as long-range Ukrainian drones have brought the civilian population in Russia the undreamed-of nightmare reality that they too, not only Ukrainians can become targets of deadly missiles and drones. The peace proposal reached by Putin and US. President Donald Trump last year in Alaska, requiring Ukraine to surrender land in exchange for an end to the conflict was rejected by Mr. Zelenakyy: "You can see for yourself that Ukrainian and European issues are not decided in Anchorage", he responded. 

 

A Ukrainian serviceman of the 65th Separate Mechanized Brigade walks on a street near the frontline town of Orikhiv in Zaporizhzhia region on Wednesday. (Reuters)