26-04-2025
This deal is a betrayal of Ukraine — yet we all bear responsibility
Roughly once a fortnight since 2022 I've clicked on Sport Angels, a website that chronicles the Ukrainian sportspeople — men and women, boys and girls — who have died since the start of the war. I do this as a way, however tenuous, of glimpsing the human stories behind the cold statistics trotted out on the news, which can desensitise us to the scale of suffering unfolding on our continent.
I've read of Yuriy Yatskiv, a 26-year-old goalkeeper, who died in battle near Toretsk; of 17-year-old Vira Birukova, an outstanding basketball player killed with her sister by shelling in the Mykolaiv region; about Nastya, eight, and her ten-year-old brother Maxym Symaniuk (Nastya was a rhythmic gymnast; Maxym practised karate), who were killed with Zoryana, their
