Only a few days have passed since Vladimir Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine, but it is already clear the consequences will be profound and generational.
The striking design on the Guardian Weekly’s cover this week is by Sergiy Maidukov, a Kyiv-based illustrator. His depiction of plumes of smoke rising from a Ukrainian horizon was one of several images he created on his iPad while under curfew in the city.
“We are sharing an apartment with four friends and doing some volunteering – delivering food and stuff,” Maidukov wrote on Monday. “I live now at the swing of extreme feelings, from dark fear to bright optimism. In days like these, it is impossible to be on one’s own.”
He and his friends have also been donating blood. But, amid the bleak scenes, he also feels hope for the future: “I feel that this time, historically, we have the best chances ever to fight Russia back. We are already discussing how we should rebuild our country after the victory. Glory to Ukraine!”
Our special edition of the magazine this week contains 16 pages of dedicated news coverage, kicking off with Russian author Vladimir Sorokin’s scathing essay on the rot at the heart of Moscow’s power pyramid that has created a monster. Shaun Walker, Emma Graham-Harrison and Peter Beaumont lead our coverage on the ground in Ukraine, while there’s brilliant analysis and context from the rest of the Guardian and Observer’s international reporting team, including Timothy Garton Ash and Daniel Boffey.
Then, on the Opinion pages, with hundreds of thousands now fleeing Ukraine and the west facing up to a new existential threat, Jonathan Freedland offers the stark reminder that while Putin’s appalling worldview took full shape, it was our leaders who wilfully looked the other way.
The nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US supreme court last week may understandably have passed below many people’s radar. Lauren Gambino explains why Jackson’s rise is a timely boost for Joe Biden, while in Opinion Moira Donegan argues that the president’s groundbreaking choice was born to the role.
Artificial intelligence can sometimes be a demonised technology, as people dwell on its potential to disrupt our lives for the worse. But, as Graeme Green writes this week, AI and machine learning are being used to improve the survival prospects of several endangered species, from pangolins to elephants.
In Culture, don’t miss Booker-winning author Bernardine Evaristo’s interview with Warsan Shire, the new superstar of poetry. And, as the final series of Peaky Blinders hits UK TV screens, Simon Usborne looks at how the Birmingham-based gangster show became an international cultural phenomenon.
