A Christmas hope for Ukraine – and the world

This year, for the first time, millions of Ukrainians will celebrate Christmas on 25 December. The Orthodox Church had used the Julian calendar and marked the nativity on 7 January – but parishes are moving to a new ecclesiastical hierarchy, dropping ties with Moscow. The invasion has accelerated the forging of a distinct Ukrainian identity: a people united by spending winter without power or running water due to the Russian strategy of firing missiles at power stations and using the cold as a weapon against the general population. Moscow’s aim is to erode morale – and the will to fight.

Like much of Vladimir Putin’s strategy, though, this isn’t working. Ukraine has spent months preparing for this winter and the ordeal has, if anything, stiffened public resolve. Mobile electricity generators are powering hospitals and 4,000 ‘invincibility points’ have been set up to offer heat, power or wifi. Blankets and torches are being bought as Ukrainians prepare to see in the new year in darkness. The public mood is a peculiar but widespread confidence that, if they can get through winter, victory will arrive with the spring. There is a new saying in Kyiv: ‘Without electricity, but without Russia.’

None of this could have been imagined at the start of the year, when Ukraine seemed to be there for the taking. It’s often said that Putin’s invasion was crazy, but he had every reason to expect a quick victory with few serious consequences. He had, after all, annexed Crimea with minimal censure in 2014, then started a war in the Donbas with 15,000 deaths – and barely a word said in the West.