What Are We Fighting for?

Putin thought that other countries' desire to do business with Russia, and their energy dependency on Russia especially, would give him a free hand in Ukraine. What Ukraine Reveals Viewpoint Sheltering from Iranian kamikaze Shahed drones in the Kyiv metro in October, I tried to hide my extreme nervousness while simultaneously scrolling through social media videos of antiregime protests in Iran, where relentlessly courageous crowds of women were ripping off their shawls in defiance of the ayatollahs who sell the Shahed drones to the Kremlin, which then uses them to attack civilians in the city of my birth. It was a reminder of how the war in Ukraine is about fighting not only Russia, but also a whole network of authoritarian regimes. [Extracted from the article]