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So for fact sake, search the economist.

Ukrainians understood both from the Russian occupation of Crimea and from the Russian occupation of Dunyezk

that Russian occupation would be an end of their lives as they know it.

They understood that this would be the end of not just

Ukraine as a country, but also of democracy,

of the more open lifestyle they'd enjoyed,

the more free press they'd enjoyed, the more free conversation they'd enjoyed

and really have enjoyed over the last decade, much more so than Russia.

And so they know they're fighting for something that's existential, it matters to them,

and it matters to them a lot more than it matters to the Russians who are

coming over the border especially some of the younger conscripts who seem at

least in the initial wave didn't understand why they were there at all.

And now the good fight with Yasha Monk.

It's difficult to think about anything other than the war in Ukraine at the moment

and that's what my main conversation this week with an album is going to be about.

But I did want to take a moment to address two upcoming elections in Europe.

...