As Zelensky and co. get richer ordinary Ukrainians suffer: their lives are now worthlessIn conversation with Dr Marta Havryshko
Something is deeply broken when a Ukrainian historian has to sit down and say out loud what millions of ordinary people already know in their bones: this war has become a business, and Ukrainian lives are the expendable currency. In my latest conversation on The Peacemonger, Marta Havryshko does not hold back. She is not a Kremlin mouthpiece. She is a Ukrainian, a war refugee, a scholar of the Holocaust and Ukrainian nationalism, and a woman who still has family living through the daily nightmare. That is precisely why her words cut so deep. Marta describes a reality that Western media prefers to ignore. The war is no longer primarily about territory or “victory.” It has become a highly profitable enterprise for a narrow elite around Zelensky. Defence contracts, energy deals, Western aid – the money flows upwards while the bodies pile up. Corruption is not a side-effect. It is the operating system.Meanwhile, ordinary Ukrainians – especially the poor, the working class, the Russian-speaking – are treated as raw material. Men are dragged off the street, beaten in draft centres, declared fit even when they weigh 200 kilograms and barely understand the war is happening. Some die before they ever reach the front. Families receive a phone call and a body left outside a building. This is not patriotism. This is industrialised disposability. Gallup’s own data shows the majority of Ukrainians now want the war to end as soon as possible. Yet the official narrative continues to claim the opposite. Optimistic victory polls are treated as gospel while the lived experience of the population is dismissed as “Russian propaganda.” Marta calls this what it is: a deliberate disconnection from reality designed to keep the machine running. She is equally clear about the internal divisions. Language policing, public humiliation of Russian speakers, and the casual contempt shown towards people from Donbas by some in power have created resentment that no amount of Western cheerleading can paper over. When elite units record recruitment videos in Russian while ordinary citizens are attacked for speaking it, the hypocrisy is impossible to miss. The most chilling part of our conversation is the quiet realisation that Ukrainian lives simply do not count the same way in the calculus of those driving this war from a safe distance. Western politicians and commentators demand more Russian deaths while showing little interest in the widows, the fatherless children, the traumatised soldiers, or the mothers still waiting for sons who will never come home. Ukrainians have been turned into instruments. Their deaths are statistics. Their suffering is background noise. Marta does not offer easy answers. She simply refuses to lie. The war is catastrophic. The human cost is being borne by those with the least power. The people who profit from its continuation have every incentive to keep it going.You can watch the full interview here: It is not comfortable viewing but it is necessary viewing. If you believe ordinary people should not be sacrificed so that elites can grow richer and politicians can avoid admitting failure, share this conversation. The silence around these truths has lasted long enough. Wherever you are in the world, whatever your nationality and religion, I wish you much peace. You're currently a free subscriber to The Peacemonger. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. © 2026 ian |