For months, the West’s most respected military experts have been insisting that Vladimir Putin’s war machine is close to running out of steam in Ukraine. However, it is a prediction that seems completely at odds with the reality of life for millions of Ukrainians living close to the frontline.
Deploying terrifying winged explosives, Russia has in fact stepped up attempts to wipe Ukraine’s cities off the map. During the course of last week alone, Moscow fired 800 glide bombs at Ukrainian targets, injuring dozens of soldiers and innocent civilians, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Weighing more than a tonne, the devastating devices have been given the nickname “the building destroyer” because of their ability to reduce entire multistorey buildings to rubble. Kharkiv clings on courageously but the bombardment has flattened major towns such as Avdiivka, Vovchansk and Chasiv Yar.
It is in the face of this relentless onslaught that Ukraine has made the bold decision to go to war again – only this time the country is taking on the West’s most powerful financiers. It is a battle that will be determined not by heavy artillery and bombs, but by Zoom calls and spreadsheets.
In the middle of a conflict that OECD officials say is causing a humanitarian, social and economic crisis for the Ukrainian people, some of the world’s most influential moneymen are demanding that Kyiv begins to honour its debts.