Volodymyr Zelensky is a hero of our time

When the Queen died, I was on my way to Kyiv. My mind focused on the war in Ukraine, I found myself uncharacteristically lost for words when I was asked to comment. I took refuge in the complexities of the journey, which involved a delayed flight from Rome to Lublin, a frantic drive to Chelm on the Polish-Ukrainian border, and then an overnight train through western Ukraine. It was a good excuse. The reality was I could think of nothing to say. I couldn’t have done an interview even if I’d been trapped in Broadcasting House.

Kyiv was, as NBC’s roving war correspondent Richard Engel had forewarned me, more exuberant than you might expect a capital city at war to be. The Battle of Kyiv was fought and won in the first phase of the war and now the fighting is to the south, around Kherson, and to the east, beyond Kharkiv. Central Kyiv looks positively cheerful. Only when you drive north-east, to the suburbs of Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel, do you see the blown bridges, destroyed houses, and burnt-out Russian armour. I am haunted by the simple memorial to the victims of Russian war crimes buried next to the Church of St Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints in Bucha. It was only six months ago that they interred the bodies of more than 60 people here, many of them civilians executed in cold blood by Russian death squads. Ukrainian soldiers routinely refer to the invaders as ‘the orcs’. You soon see why.

There had been something thrilling about the train ride to Kyiv. Our group included old friends – Anne Applebaum, Radek Sikorski, Fareed Zakaria, Eric Schmidt – and there was a certain giddiness as we trundled eastwards in blacked-out sleeping compartments.