How Ukraine Will Win the War 🇺🇦

Just in case you missed the news, a war started in Europe last week. Or to be precise, some people from an aggressive country (Russia) attacked all the people in a peaceful one (Ukraine).

Why should you care? I’ll get to that, but first consider one of the most remarkable facts about this whole thing: the underdog is winning.

Ukraine, hugely outnumbered and invaded by a dominant outsider, lacks every advantage—yet they’re putting up an incredible fight!

To be clear, they might not win right away, or even at all. Russia has superior air power and a much larger military all around. Ukraine has less than a third of the population size and just 10% of GDP. Financially speaking, Russia’s budget has clear priorities: after the oligarchs get paid, put the rest towards creating chaos.

Also, “winning” a war never comes without great cost. If you could choose between winning and never having the war in the first place, only a dictator or a fool would choose war.

So it’s tough, in other words. Still, so far we have a far greater resistance than anyone expected. The president, who prior to his current job won competitions on Dancing with the Stars, seems to have met the moment.

You may have heard about the Ukrainians holding their ground against a Russian warship, willing to die rather than surrender. It’s truly an inspiring story, and one that I don’t think I’ll forget for a long time.

But did you hear about:

• The all-volunteer “IT army of Ukraine” launching coordinated cyber attacks on Russia (coder friends, join on Telegram and pitch in!)
• The mothers making molotov cocktails (an apocalyptic version of the Tupperware party)
• The 25,000 rifles given out to anyone who shows up, including 60-year-old farmers who want to defend their homeland
• Ukrainian women matching with Russian soldiers on Tinder, then exposing their positions while telling them off

I’m telling you, the resistance is real! And good for them. Whatever happens next, I really, really hope their struggle and sacrifice is not in vain. A few weeks ago, I would have said, “Shit, this is terrible but who’s going to stop Russia? Not the U.S., and there’s no one else in the region willing to step up—so it’s a lost cause.”

But not so! At least not right away. Once in a while the underdog puts up an incredible fight. And this fierce resistance has allowed time for lots of other governments and actors to step up, from Germany to the Polish soccer team.

Bad Things in the World—Why Care?

I totally understand why you might not want to pay attention.

Really, I get it. Bad things happen every day, somewhere in the world. As they say, if you aren’t outraged, you aren’t paying attention—but you can’t pay attention to everything, or else you’ll always be outraged.

Sensory overload is real, and I appreciate the stoic principle of not stressing out about all the things you can’t control.

But there’s also a risk that comes from tuning out completely.

When Russia invaded Ukraine last week—as if anyone had any doubt that they would—it really could have gone another way. I would not have been shocked if they’d rolled right in, captured Kyiv and other cities, and prepared to settle in as an occupying power. After all, that’s what Russia itself was expecting.

But look, Ukraine fought back! Average citizens are even willing to die for it. How could you not find this admirable?

So that’s why you have to care; you have to believe in something. To not care is to dehumanize.

When I wrote about the 2020 U.S. election, it created a firestorm in my inbox, the likes of which I hadn’t seen in years. I received hundreds of replies, probably 70-30 in favor but definitely a lot that were strongly opposed.

Over the following week more than 2,000 people unsubscribed. (Life goes on. For anyone who says, “Don’t talk about politics,” I always think “But everything is political.”)

One of my favorite replies came from a reader who passed on this Jewish dictum: “Even though we cannot solve a problem, we are not free to desist from trying.”

I liked that a lot and have thought about it many times since. You gotta try, regardless of outcome.

So if nothing else, let’s follow along, do anything we can to help, and hope for the best. As I said, the short-term scenario isn’t great—Russia really is a superior military force, and Putin doesn’t care about who gets hurt along the way. Even so, the underdog is stepping up! Maybe the rest of us can learn something from them.

Go Ukraine! 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

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