A father prepares to leave his children and fight for Ukraine

This Sunday newsletter shares columns on Ukraine from over the weekend. From the story of a writer turned soldier in Ukraine to praise for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, here's what you might've missed.

'We will never give up': A father prepares to fight for Ukraine

By Carli Pierson

Illarion Pavliuk is a renowned Ukrainian writer, documentary filmmaker and journalist. He is also, now, in the fight for a free Ukraine. He spoke with me Saturday from his home in the Western part of the country, after he tucked his children into bed.

On Sunday morning, he told me, he will set out on a dangerous journey to help his countrymen as explosions rock Kyiv, and outgunned Ukrainian forces continue to maintain control of their capital. This, a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he needs 'ammunition not a ride.' The call to arms has been made, curfews put in place. Danger abounds. Ukrainians, Pavliuk said, are strong and united; they will not give an inch. 

Pavliuk is not a solider, but he does have a military background. In 2015, he was an intelligence volunteer in the war in Eastern Ukraine. And yet, this is what Ukraine has become – a country where internationally acclaimed artists are forced to kiss their children goodnight before they go off to defend their homeland from the occupying force. But it is because of people like Pavliuk that Russian troops are finding their ambitions thwarted.

As he said to me, "We will never give up and we are going to win this war. You cannot defeat the whole nation. And Ukrainians are absolutely united as a nation now."

Putin’s biography makes this moment in history especially dangerous

By Louise Branson

The 21st century is shaping up to be a new Age of Dictators. None is scarier, future history books may well judge, than Russian President Vladimir Putin. His war with Ukraine is a gambler’s war. The stakes, for him, are nothing short of an ambition to be seen as a great historical figure.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once correctly said that history is biography; Putin’s biography makes this dictator, and this moment in history, especially dangerous.

Putin, like other dictators, is driven by vanity, the thirst for power and the willingness to do almost anything to keep that power. But his KGB past, now coming into play, adds a scary element. As a former operative in the Soviet Union’s KGB, then head of its Russian successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB), he was schooled in Machiavellian psychological games – lying, gaslighting, making false promises, bullying and more.

'I need ammunition, not a ride': Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is a hero

By Carli Pierson

Often heroes come from unexpected places. That is certainly the case with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

The president's social media posts of himself, and with his advisers, have caught the world's attention. No longer dressed in the blue and gray suits of bureaucrats, Zelenskyy now makes his appearances in green fatigues. The message is clear: He is battle-ready. While many wondered whether the president would survive the night as Russia bombarded the country's capitol, Saturday morning Zelenskyy appeared in a self-filmed video in Kyiv telling the world that he doesn't want to flee his country.

"I need ammunition, not a ride," he said in Ukrainian. A phrase the world must never forget.

"I don't know if he's a hero but he is the leader of our nation now." That's what Konstantin Novikov, a 38-year-old yoga teacher told me in a private online chat. "What is most important is that he speaks directly and openly, not like a politician. He says it like it is. He says no one will protect us. The whole world only sympathizes and worries, like Poland in 1939." 

Other columns on Ukraine you might've missed

• Ukraine and Kyiv hold a place in my heart. Hope is all I have to offer
• Ukraine's President Zelenskyy is leading the world against Russia
• America's kids care about Russia's war on Ukraine. We should listen.
• What we fear as Russia invades Ukraine and Zelenskyy holds firm

This newsletter was compiled by Jaden Amos.