Hope: A story of Ukrainian jugaad on war's first anniversary

Photo by Jasmine Yu on Unsplash

In some respects, journalist and Volodymr Zelensky’s former political advisor Iuliia Mendel could be said to exhibit the psychology of hope glimpsed in Irina and Halina, Ukrainian refugees in London. Many Indians, incidentally, will recognise Ms Mendel’s incurable optimism about her fellow citizens’ improvisational genius as a Ukrainian form of jugaad.

I’ve already described how Irina and Halina came across at the dinner table — their serenity, hopefulness and realism. The Washington Post opinions editor-at-large Michael Duffy does the honours for Ms Mendel, who has been writing for the paper in the year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (It’s worthwhile to note at this point that in the past, there was a bit of controversy about an alleged conflict of interest between Ms Mendel’s work as a journalist and her work in government. Wikipedia offers a potted guide here.)

Anyway, that is not of concern here. We’re talking about Ukrainian hope. Back to why …