Nearly four years of emigration have become a reality for millions of Ukrainian families. Many left with children of different ages in haste, without a clear understanding of how long this “temporary” situation would last. For some children, school life began abroad — the first day at school, first friends, first notebooks in another language. This experience inevitably shapes a new identity, and in many cases children begin to speak a foreign language more confidently than their native one.

A notable and telling trend has emerged inside the Russian military: rare, highly trained specialists are being reassigned en masse to frontline infantry roles, Viktor Kevliuk, Ukrainian Colonel and expert in Defense Strategies, wrote on Jan. 28.

As a foreigner, what impresses me most is the motivation and determination of Ukrainians in defending their country — not only the military, who fight for their homeland day and night, but also civilians and entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial spirit of Ukrainians is equally impressive.

“We go out to the fields in body armour,” says Yuriy Bolotov, “We don’t carry arms, but we also defend our country’s interests when fighting for our harvest in the Kherson steppes.”

Prosecuting Ukrainian collaborators is complex. Proving voluntariness, distinguishing coercion, and securing reliable testimony are inherently difficult and are further complicated by Russia’s occupation, restricted access to evidence and witnesses in the temporarily occupied territories, and its systematic disregard for the law of occupation, which distorts civilian behaviour and obscures the truth.