The sunflower is Ukraine’s national flower and has become a potent symbol of hope and resistance during the invasion. It’s a concept Egle Plytnikaite, a Lithuanian illustrator based in Vilnius, has captured poignantly in her cover art for this week’s edition of the Guardian’s weekly news magazine.
“My goal was to depict the unbreakable spirit of Ukrainian people who united for their country in the darkest hour,” she writes. “They are experiencing an absolutely horrible and inhumane terror from Russian occupiers and yet they manage to keep morale high and fight back with incredible force. There is a saying that ‘you cannot make a free man kneel’ and Ukrainians are a living example of that.
“Slava Ukraini, heroyam slava!” (Glory to Ukraine, glory to the heroes)
For many people, the true horror of Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine was brought home last weekend by shocking images showing a family of four killed by Russian mortar fire while fleeing the town of Irpin. Yet, despite the dire conditions for civilians trapped in cities such as Kherson and Mariupol, determination to resist the Russian invasion stayed firm. Indeed, in refusing to leave Kyiv, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has epitomised courage and dignity in the face of Moscow’s onslaught.
Our coverage in this edition focuses on the Ukrainian resistance, with Luke Harding reflecting on a week that felt as though decades had gone by. The diary of a Kyiv parent details a world turned upside down in a few days. Captured Russian soldiers express confusion and regret while, on Ukraine’s borders, a mass exodus continues, with about 2 million people having fled. Most have headed for Poland where, as Lorenzo Tondo observes, they have received a different welcome to the Syrian and Afghan refugees who arrived there last year.
In Opinion, Neal Ascherson laments history’s forgotten lessons, Larry Elliott ponders the west’s appetite for sustained sanctions against Russia, and Rebecca Solnit reminds us that in a world beset by chaos and turmoil, hope can always be found if you know where to look.
Australia suffered a traumatic week, battered by storms that brought catastrophic flooding to the east coast, with more expected this week. Then came the deaths of two of the country’s cricketing legends – Rod Marsh and Shane Warne – in quick succession. Caitlin Cassidy surveys some of the flood wreckage, while sports writer Andy Bull pays tribute to Warne, one of the greatest cricketers ever.
