Illia Ponomarenko is one of the most prominent war reporters in Ukraine. He himself is Ukrainian. Many of us have relied on him for the past two years. And he is my guest on Q&A, here. He spoke to me from Bucha, which has become an infamous name. In Bucha, Russian troops committed some of their worst savagery of the war. That was in March 2022. Ponomarenko has now come out with a book: I Will Show You How It Was: The Story of Wartime Kyiv.

I always feel strange asking a Ukrainian, “How are you?” But I ask Ponomarenko. “It’s not the worst question,” he says. He goes on to say the following (and I will paraphrase):

You know, Ukraine is a huge country. And we are in the middle of pretty epic, historic events. This war is about millions of lives: millions of people, doing what they can. We are all in this together. I can’t say that we’re in the best position right now. We’re having a pretty dark time, even by the standards of this war. But there is something that we have learned, something very simple, very basic: No matter how dark it is, we should keep doing what is right. And because of this principle, we have come this far.

Ponomarenko was born and raised in eastern Ukraine. His family was Russian-speaking. He went to Mariupol State University. Kremlin propagandists and their echoers in the Free World tell you that people from eastern Ukraine feel themselves Russian and want to be ruled by Moscow. This is a hard myth to dispel. But people such as Ponomarenko do their best.

As a war correspondent, he went to East Africa, in 2019. He covered terrible things there: war, of course; disease; slavery. But covering your own country, at war: That is a different thing, mentally and emotionally. A war in your own country is about your own life. The lives of your loved ones. Everybody.

Ponomarenko says something almost amusing (almost):

Here we are, in the year 2024. We’re supposed to be flying to the moon or operating flying cars. Instead, we are in this weird situation of being in an “old-style” war. Millions of people are mobilized. Soldiers are in the trenches. In the age of Netflix, we are in a war that seems to belong to a different time.

Ukrainians in arms, he says, have shown an “insane valor,” a bravery that practically defies belief.

At the end of our conversation, I ask Illia Ponomarenko a cliché of a question, but not a bad one: What would he like to say? What would he like to tell people?

A lot of people wonder why Ukrainians can’t just cede territory and make peace. Why are we so stubborn? Why are we so stupid? It’s not that we are stubborn or stupid. It’s just that we know the Russians. They don’t want a town, a city, or an oblast. They want Ukraine — all the way past Kyiv to Poland, and the gates of Central Europe. This is a certainty. You have to save the whole patient. The whole of Ukraine.

Bidding goodbye, I say, “Slava Ukraini” (“Glory to Ukraine”). He says, “God bless America.” I know a lot of people who gag on such things. I don’t care.

Again, for this Q&A, go here.