Mongols, Soviets, now Putin: every empire told Ukraine “you are one of us.” None were right.
From a corner table here in Virmenka café, three days after a Shahed drone hit downtown Lviv’s 17th-century Bernardine monastery, I consider how Ukraine’s complex history exposes its vulnerability to not just Russian imperialism but also to Western simplifications. Three ladies in their 50s sit across from me, one updating her lipstick.Continue Reading

