The Oscar-nominated documentary, Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (2015), is on Netflix. Harrowing but essential viewing, it shows how Ukrainian youths who were mostly born during the period of post-Soviet independence galvanised their people from all walks of life to protest against the ‘oppressive’ regime, headed by a pro-Russian president, at the time (circa 2013).

The extraordinary courage and fearlessness of Ukrainian civilians shown in the face of police brutality and certain death in pursuit of freedom tell us a thing or two about their strong unity and fervent resistance against Russia’s special military operation today. But is the fight for freedom more accurately a coup engineered by the US to further contain and isolate Russia, using a woefully willing Ukraine as a geopolitical pawn? There is always more than one narrative in any conflict.

The war may be far away (for someone in Singapore), and while Russia holds some responsibility for escalating tensions with the invasion, the US and NATO are equally if not much more culpable for laying down the preliminary conditions over many years for WWIII to spark, and forcing humanity back to the Cold War paranoia of existential nuclear threats which may very well turn unimaginably real. (Go remind yourself of ultra-close shaves: Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 & the Stanislav Petrov incident in 1983.)

I’m already feeling the fears, both rational and irrational, creeping in. The world has changed and we could be bracing for a pivotal few months or years that future historians would collectively reference to explain the state of the 21st century.

Covid was just the start, this is even more frightening, and then there is the prospect of irreversible climate change within our lifetime. In the short term, I’m just praying for everything to de-escalate as soon as possible.