Four years after President Putin bragged that he would ‘demilitarise and denazify’ Ukraine, it still stands free. Talking to locals, expats, journalists and diplomats recently in Kyiv, I found a profound sense of realism and a confidence. Ukraine’s military strength is burgeoning. Its people are determined to see things through. They are cautiously optimistic.

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Although life is looking up after an exceptionally difficult winter, one astute insider noted that the country faces the same strategic challenges: a larger, implacable, and cunning enemy; economic fragility; $500 billion damage to infrastructure; US hostility; and steady civilian and military deaths. The faces of the fallen were everywhere.

Two days before my arrival, Russia had launched almost 1,000 drones at Ukraine over a 24-hour period. An unprecedented daytime strike on the historic centre of Lviv was a Russian reminder that it could and would strike anywhere, untrammelled by the laws of war. It was sobering to experience repeated air alerts. People no longer appeared to heed alerts of incoming Russian drones, even if these remain deadly.

The warmer spring weather certainly lifted the mood. People were encouraged that the frontline has been stabilised, with big holes punched in Russian air defences at the same........

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