From Kyiv to Vilnius: Those Five Hundred Days That Should Never Have Been

Back From Kyiv 3: The Building of a Nation

Russian tanks destroyed in front of St. Michael’s Golden-Domed monastery, Kyiv. July 6, 2023. Photo: Nicolas Tenzer

Less than two months after the start of Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine, I had returned to Ukraine—to Lviv, Kyiv, Bucha and Borodyanka. The elected representatives and inhabitants of these towns were as if in shock at the cold-blooded …