It s really an existential, war it s not just about territory, it s not just about a few pieces of land. it s about whether the country can exist and whether people can continue to live in some kind of not just democracy but some kind of, with any kind of freedom, with any kind of sovereignty. with any kind of identity. his second task, and this is what he s been surprisingly good at, is explaining to outsiders what ukraine is. it s a country that was, didn t have a state, it s been a nation and has had a sense of identity for many centuries, but it didn t have a statehood until 1991. it s been a colony of other countries, of the soviet union, of the russian empire. and more and more, particularly over the last several decades, its national identity has become bound up with the ideas of democracy and the idea of european integration. the idea of personal freedom. zelenskyy, who is a former